Live, Love, Laugh in the Home
Reviewed by Vicki Stokes
Aging alone isn’t easy. It’s much more fun with friends and lovers. Doris and Ivy in the Home explores aging, friendship and love with a copious amount of humour. Having completed a run at St. Jacobs Country Playhouse, this Norm Foster play has now opened to a packed audience at Huron Country Playhouse.
A prolific and popular playwright, Foster also penned the different Jonas and Barry in the Home, featuring two men who cope with living in a seniors’ home. The topic is fruitful and combined with Foster’s wit and our aging population, it makes for popular theatre.
It’s Doris’s first day at Paradise Village and she is determined to find a friend. A former prison guard in a correctional facility for men, she is a firecracker, just the sort of person Ivy would prefer to avoid. After three failed marriages, Ivy has returned to using her maiden name, an infamous name in the skiing world. When Doris learns who she is, her hope of friendship is almost put to an end. These two women are heavily shaped by their pasts, and Doris often puts her foot in her mouth, but she is well-meaning and a friendship is sparked. As for romance, fellow resident Arthur spontaneously composes poetry and is looking at the reluctant Ivy for one more chance at love.
Valerie Boyle plays the spicy Doris. She played the delightful Mrs. Potts in Beauty and the Beast at Huron Country Playhouse in 2017. Doris is hardened and often uncensored, and Boyle does an excellent job of making her a sympathetic and warm character. Elva Mai Hoover is well-cast as the reserved and proper Ivy. Rob McClure, who was hilarious in It Runs in the Family, is great as the too-healthy-looking-to-be-ill Arthur, though on opening night he spoke just a tad too fast when delivering his witty poetry for the audience to savour the words.
The set is a lovely upscale retirement home patio, with wicker furniture, a bistro set, and tables. The porchlights come on for the nighttime scenes. The costumes are realistic, comfortable street clothes, with Ivy and Arthur dressing slightly nicer than Doris but still casual.
This play is heavy on humour but it has a few issues. Doris remembers Ivy’s ski incident from over fifty years ago in far too great detail. The second act hurries along timewise, and things fall into place a little too nicely in the end. This isn’t a big deal, because the overall experience is a very positive one of friendship, compassion, and of course, lots of laughter. This production is well-directed and well-cast, and it’s well worth buying a ticket to see Doris and Ivy evolve into best friends.
Doris and Ivy in the Home continues until July 28 at Huron Country Playhouse, South Huron Stage. Tickets are available by calling the Box Office at 519-238-6000, Toll-Free at 1-855-372-9866, or by checking www.huroncountryplayhouse.com for availability.
Photo: Doris (Valerie Boyle), Ivy (Elva Mai Hoover), and Arthur (Rob McClure). Photo by Drayton Entertainment.
Doris and Ivy in the Home
Written by Norm Foster
Directed by David Nairn
Performed by Valerie Boyle, Elva Mai Hoover, Rob McClure
Produced by Drayton Entertainment
South Huron Stage, Huron Country Playhouse, Grand Bend
July 11 to July 28, 2024
Reviewed by Vicki Stokes