For the second time, Sudbury playwright Matthew Heiti will see one of his plays staged by Sudbury Theatre Centre as part of its regular season.
"Ever Falling Flight" runs at STC March 3-13.
Inspired by the disappearance of pioneering 20th century pilot Amelia Earhart, this tale launches itself into a re-imagined captivating story with a new heroine.
It is a dark, comic fantasy tale that follows Earhart and her navigator Fred as they dash through increasingly strange ports-of-call. The famous pilot races against the clock and the spectre of a demonic red plane.
In 2013, Heiti’s play about Sudbury’s baseball history, “Mucking in the Drift,” also ran at STC. He’s also the writer of a play about mental illness staged by STC mainly for youth audiences called “Black Dog: 4 Vs the World.”
"Ever Falling Flight," directed by STC artistic director John McHenry, stars Sudbury’s Ruthie Nkut as AE along with Kevin Morris as Fred the navigator.
“It's inspired by the life and final flight of Amelia Earhart, but the character herself isn't Amelia,” said Heiti.
“It's an echo of the real woman making this flight over and over again. She's trapped in this eternal loop making the same flight without end, because we never know what happened to the actual Amelia Earhart.”
Heiti said he actually began working on the script for "Ever Falling Flight" back in 2006, when he became fascinated with Earhart’s story.
An early version of the play focused on the actual biographical details of Earhart’s life, but Heiti “hated” what he wrote, eventually opting to go with characters loosely inspired by the real people.
Because we don’t actually know what happened to Earhart, there are a lot of “what-ifs” — and conspiracies — related to her story, he said.
“I think that's what's so fascinating, is how can one life contain all of those endings,” Heiti said.
"Ever Falling Flight" was not only written by a Sudbury playwright, it stars Sudburian Ruthie Nkut as AE, the character inspired by Earhart’s life.
The character struggled with this “need to be great,” but there were other people “holding her back” and trying to tell her she needed to be a mother or a nurse, because she was a woman, Nkut said.
“She overcame that, and she was so unique,” she said. “So it's really powerful.”
Nkut, who has starred in many YES Theatre productions locally, and done work across Canada and in New York City, said she relates to the character in that Earhart’s family wanted her to take an easier path in life, and that’s the case for actors as well.
She said the play has a message of “resilience and being who you are.”
Kevin Morris of St. Catharines plays the role of Fred the navigator, although we never actually see him on stage — we only hear his narration from off-stage.
“He sort of becomes a conduit for voices in Amelia’s head,” said Morris, who was recruited for the role by director John McHenry, who’s an old friend.
“So, obviously he’s still Fred, but he sort of picks on her, calls her out when she’s maybe embellishing or not telling the truth or being truthful with herself. So Fred sort of exists in her mind. That’s fun to play.”
Morris said performing in this play has been “tricky,” given that he and Nkut aren’t on stage together.
“I said to Ruthie the first day we met, ‘I just want to make sure you and I are in the same play,’” he said.
“It just means we both have to listen to each other, and make sure you know when she’s saying and I’m shouting something back there, you want to make sure we're all on the same page. You don't want to have a disconnect.”
If you miss the run of "Ever Falling Flight," you could always catch the French version, Aéroportée, which is being produced by Théâtre du Nouvel-Ontario in April.
Sudbury’s Miriam Cusson not only stars in the TNO production, she translated Heiti’s play.
“Our shows are echoes of the same story, but they’re very different,” Heiti said.
“Her text diverges from mine, and the interpretation on stage and the production is very different. I think that’s what’s interesting about this kind of translation, the uniqueness of the fact that we’re both interpreting something in our own way.”
As stated above, the STC production runs March 3-13, with a pay-what-you-can matinee at 2:30 p.m. March 6, and a relaxed performance at 2:30 p.m. March 12.
Tickets cost $50 each and are available at sudburytheatre.com or through STC’s box office at 705-674-8381, ext. 21.
The TNO production of Aéroportée runs April 7-9 at Collége Boréal, including two performances with English subtitles. Tickets are pay-what-you-can, with a maximum price of $40 each. Visit TNO’s website for tickets.
