The cast of Phoenix Theatre’s In My Day (Photo: Dean Kalyan)

On March 12, the Phoenix Theatre opened their final mainstage production of the semester, In My Day, written by Rick Waines. Waines is a Victoria playwright whose work uses autofiction and verbatim material to discuss his experiences living with HIV and the historical impacts HIV has on communities. This play is no different, using themes of joy, care and connection to tell the story of life in the queer community during the HIV/AIDS epidemic.

The performance is supported by the SSRHC project “HIV In My Day” which is a collection of interviews with long-term HIV survivors and their caregivers. The interviews focus on their experience with the epidemic, and Waines used these interviews to structure his play, incorporating nearly one hundred survivor’s voices.

Waines himself was diagnosed with HIV when he was 21, which became a driving factor for writing the play. “I wrote this for those of us who survived,” he says, and considers it important for us to look back and remember historically important stories like these.

Director Roy Surette

A new script

As a play, In My Day was first workshopped in 2021 in the Belfry Theatre’s SPARK festival, then later performed in 2023 by Vancouver’s ZeeZee Theatre at the Cultch. Since then, it has been reworked to suit a Victoria audience, becoming the play that will be performed on the Phoenix stage with guest director Roy Surrette.

When reworking the play, Waines decided to change the structure by adding himself as a character. He describes this character as “a guy named Rick, who’s transcribing these interviews poorly and slowly.” Including Rick opened the opportunity to introduce additional characters from Waines’ personal life — Laurie Rose and Pei Lim. “I’m grateful for the opportunity to have conversations with the dead,” he says about writing characters based on his friends. “Because I miss them and they meant a lot to me.”

Cast member Zaafir Devji (above) & with  Emma Moon, Nyx Martel & Patrick Jaworek (Photo: Dean Kalyan)

Working with students to understand the history

In all iterations of the play so far, Waines has worked with a young cast who don’t have firsthand experience of living through the HIV/AIDS epidemic like he does, so educating them is a priority. By the end of the process, Waines notices how deeply the cast knows the story they’re telling. “Not just the dates, names, and drugs, but the feeling in their bodies,” he says. “They’re digging into it … it’s clear to me that there’s a lot of feelings going on.”

Of course, a theatre production always comes with struggle, especially a huge show with blocking, choreography, and dancing like this one. Even so, Waines is impressed with the student cast and how quickly they were off book during rehearsals. “Amazing,” he calls them, “I’ve been thrilled with their energy and their commitment.”

Fulfilling theatre’s mandate

Last year, the Theatre department generated new department values, so it’s important that In My Day’s production fits within those. Kovacs describes the three values as using a good heart and mind to commit to nurturing an environment of passionate creativity, to think about health and wellness as one of the foundations of their work, and to create an inclusive community of belonging.

There’s a level of risk when taking on In My Day since it’s a new Canadian play, but Kovacs views it as “creative risk taking”. In the process of working on this production, they’re seeing places that the play needs additional work, and with their new value about uplifting passionate creativity, the theatre department is happy to take on that risk to uplift and continue working on this story.

Because In My Day is such an emotionally heavy piece, it’s necessary to consider the cast and crews health and wellness. “I think it’s something we need to talk about more,” comments Kovacs. “We’ve done some good work on preparing the company for that,” she continues, saying it’s important to question how they’re keeping their creative team healthy and safe.

Regarding an inclusive community, Kovacs explains that this goes beyond the theatre department to respond to the needs of the broader UVic community. In My Day reflects this value especially well since without Lachowski and the School of Public Health and Social Policy, the Phoenix wouldn’t have had the chance to put on this play. “It provides an opportunity for the students to understand that their work serves larger goals and priorities,” Kovacs says.

The future of In My Day

Going forward, the department hopes to highlight more historically important stories like they are with this production. There’s a history of research-informed creation existing in the theatre department, but they aren’t being produced. “This is an opportunity to think about now producing this [kind of] work,” says Kovacs.

Additionally, with his role as librettist, Waines is using the source archive for a new ambient, electronic verbatim opera titled “i am beauty” with Pacific Opera Victoria.

Get tickets for In My Day, which runs March 12-21 at UVic, including a pre-show lecture at 7pm Friday, March 13 and a special March 14 of community health day that includes admission to the show.

—Claudia Phillips, with files from John Threlfall