Anonymous advice columns are funny things, because they share gossip that you’re not just allowed — but are in fact encouraged — to hear. Why some people feel more comfortable anonymously asking a stranger for advice — and letting other strangers read their private thoughts — is a mystery we likely won’t solve in a theatre preview. But the final show of Shadow Theatre’s 30th season takes an artistic look at the people who write in to advice columns — and the person who replies.
Tiny Beautiful Things — adapted from Cheryl Strayed’s novel of the same name by acclaimed Canadian writer Nia Vardalos (My Big Fat Greek Wedding) — tells the story of Sugar, who becomes an advice columnist and replies to thousands of letters with her own brand of brutal honesty and incisive empathy.
She agrees to advise on a whim, explains Artistic Director John Hudson, and ends up helping those seeking guidance through life’s obstacles, both big and small. “She’s a little reluctant at first, just because she’s so busy writing other things, it doesn’t pay anything, and she doesn’t get credit,” he says. “But eventually, she just says what the hell, let’s go for it. And as people come forward with their letters, she takes a different tack than a lot of people would, delving deeply into her own life and drawing on examples for what other people are going through. It was initially a sort of curiosity, but then she really tackles things with radical empathy and a full heart.”
Like a real-life advice column, there are fun (from readers’ perspectives) letters, like the “young bro” who is confused about a couple of trysts he’s had — one with his “girlfriend,” and one with her ex-best-friend. “And Sugar is very funny about it, basically saying to him: You don’t have a future with either of these women, and neither of these women are even thinking about you!”
Then there are the heavy letters, one of which helps Sugar bring out her inner advice voice, when another young man writes in asking: When is the right time to tell your partner you love them? “As she’s writing, she draws on her relationship to her mother, who died quite young of cancer,” Hudson says. “And she says it may seem odd that she’s using this comparison to what [the letter writer] is going through, but that the last word her mother could say was love. So, when do you say you love somebody? Well, when you know you love them!”
While it’s about letter writing, Sugar doesn’t spend the whole play sitting at her desk. Instead, Michelle Todd and fellow cast members Michael Peng, Sydney Williams and Brett Dahl act out the stories, Sugar’s responses, and even the stories from her own life that inspire her responses in a play Hudson says is about living your life with openness and love.
“We all struggle,” Hudson says, “whether that’s about choosing a partner or dealing with the loss of a child. But I think what Nia Vardalos tapped into with this play is the great gift we have in our journey through this life. What shines through in the play is that even when things get tough, it’s still a gift.”
See the tiny, beautiful gifts of life until May 12.
