Ward Norcutt (left) said this play is about a man overwhelmed with trauma, and he must make a choice to either deal with this trauma or not. (Lauryn Mackenzie/CHLY 101.7FM)

A new play coming to Downtown Nanaimo’s OV Arts Centre is looking to tackle the tough realities of living with mental illness, addiction, and intergenerational trauma.

A Baker’s Dozen is a fictional telling of a true story of a man dealing with the recent passing of his last living family member and the pivotal decisions he made over five years following it.

When playwright Ward Norcutt set out to write his story, the idea first came from a writing prompt in a scriptwriting class he was taking at Vancouver Island University.

“When you start to write something, a play is perhaps a different sort of beast than a novel or piece of poetry or different types of literature, there's an evolution that sort of happens, you can't really block it out,” Norcutt said. “I didn't really know where I was going at the beginning. So this play was actually a different play at the beginning. It was a completely different play in the beginning.”

Norcutt used the class project to help work through his own family's intergenerational trauma and kept evolving the play through five or six different iterations.

“So I didn't intend to write it from the beginning, but this is what came out,” Norcutt said. “Once this came out in its infant form, I saw that's what this play is about. Then that evolved into this.”

The play is being put on by Western Edge Theatre. Artistic Director of the theatre company and director of A Baker’s Dozen, Jonathan Greenway, told CHLY that they wanted to put on this play to go along with this season’s theme of men’s mental health.

Greenway said he has known Norcutt for almost 20 years, has reviewed the play through its many iterations, and knows it would be a perfect play for the company to put on.

“I really saw it evolving as well, and knowing where it was getting to, I thought it would be a great opportunity to kick off a season on men's mental health with a play that is profoundly deep and I think universally relatable,” Greenway said.

The play will feature a local cast and crew, with Norcutt taking on the leading role. While Norcutt said he has acted before, this time around, it has been interesting taking on the role of a fictional character where some of the circumstances surrounding him are real.

“ It's a wonderfully safe space to delve into these, these emotions and these emotional qualities, safely. On the stage, we're dealing with real emotions and imaginary circumstances; for me, I have real emotions with imaginary circumstances and real ones,” Norcutt said. “So there's a fine line as an actor to process that; not get sucked away into things; stay in the moment; stay within the play; stay within the direction; work with my other, and just don't forget my lines.”

Norcutt said this play is about a man overwhelmed with trauma, and he must make a choice to either deal with this trauma or not.

“ Too often we see people who do not for all the different reasons, and we don't know what those reasons are because we can't see inside the mind of that person. But in this play, we get to see inside the mind and heart of a man and understand what he's going through and why he makes the decisions that he makes,” Norcutt said. “So perhaps a play like this will help someone make a different decision or maybe even help someone who understands that a loved one has made a different decision that they wouldn't have made, why they made that decision, and help them come to some sort of understanding and sense of acceptance about that.”

Greenways said following each performance, there will be mental health resources available for people, as well as select crew members who are available if any audience members need to talk following the performance.

A Baker’s Dozen opens on November 21 at the OV Arts Centre and will run on select weekend dates until the end of the month. Tickets can be purchased at westernedge.org.

Funding Note: This story was produced with funding support from the Local Journalism Initiative, administered by the Community Radio Fund of Canada.