Critical DMs: Staging hockey at Theater in the Round

Critical DMs are lightly edited Slack conversations by members of the MPR News arts team about Minnesota art and culture. This week, arts editor Max Sparber and arts reporter Jacob Aloi discuss a play about Canadian women’s hockey.

Max Sparber: Oh, Canada!

Jacob Aloi: Our home and native land.

Sparber: Jacob, what was the name of the play we saw?

Aloi: “Glory” by Tracey Power. Currently playing at Theater in the Round.

Sparber: I feel like it’s a hard play to describe.

It’s a slice of Canadian hockey history. Women’s hockey history during the Depression.

With dance, sort of.

Aloi: And also a secret WWII play?

Sparber: It definitely barrels toward WWII.

Without going too much into it, I think it is fair to say that neither of us felt like it was an entirely successful script

Aloi: No, I think it fell into the trap of trying to squeeze too much history, plot and themes into two hours. And in doing so, it left out great character moments.

The play follows Hilda Ranscombe, a pioneer in women’s hockey.

Sparber: Leader of the Preston Rivulettes in Ontario. So named because a lot of the women on the team made shoes.

Aloi: The Rivulettes were an incredible team that had a really impressive win record. In the play, we see Hilda form the team and lead them through victories and losses. We also get to know three of the other team members and their struggles during the Depression.

Sparber: The play tries to tell the entire story of the team, but can only use four players, a coach, and an announcer, which is an interesting playwrighting problem.

But I think what we wound up with was playwrighting solutions. Some elegant, some awkward, and some hilariously weird.

Aloi: Yeah, like the fact all the on-ice action is reinterpreted as 1920s/30s inspired jazz and swing.

Sparber: That was an element I liked. The announcer would start talking and the four teammates would do awkward, synchronized jazz movements to electro swing.

It was their way of representing playing hockey and was just odd enough to be delightful.

Aloi: It’s all choreographed by Antonia Perez. She pulled off what could have been REALLY awkward. 

Sparber: And the fact that the dances were a little rough worked for me. It felt like hockey players attempting Busby Berkeley.

Aloi: I think the best part of the show is the acting.

Sparber: Yeah, the cast was terrific.

And to the script’s credit, they were all handed something to grab hold of as actors, and they ran with it.

A gruff coach with a secret. played by Daniel Stock.

A Jewish player with a chip on her shoulder, played by Kelly Solberg, and her boy-crazy sister, played by Josie Ramler.

A team leader who can’t really do anything except play hockey, played by Brynn Kelly.

Maybe a lesbian?

That part was a little underwritten, but the actress, Gabrielle Johnson, put her all into it. 

Aloi: The gruff coach was my favorite performance. He really takes audiences on his character’s journey from chauvinist to invested coach.

In fact, the scenes I enjoyed the most are when he gets to be in that mentorship role. 

Sparber: And he does it mostly by being glum and moody and barking at them. It could have been a really one-note performance, but he finds a lot of textures in there.

I do think this is a perfect Minnesota play.

We are a hockey town. We’re basically Canada's southernmost province.

Aloi: The night we went, there was a girl’s hockey team in the audience. They were seated on the opposite side of the theater, so I could see their reactions.

There were so many moments where they lit up at something that was said that they related to, or if a joke was made at a particular character’s expense, they’d look at each other almost as if to say “That’s something we’ve totally done!”

Sparber: Yeah, that was like having a visual commentary track to the play. I think they should invite girl’s hockey teams to every performance.

Aloi: That’s kind of what made this a really nice Minnesota play, that the audience gets how magical hockey can be — especially seeing as we are home to the PWHL reigning champions.

Sparber: The joy of hockey came through.

The ladies in the play even enjoyed getting teeth knocked out. They loved everything about hockey.

Aloi: I would also say that while it’s not the best play, I’m glad there’s something that captures just how long women have been contributing to the world of hockey, especially now that there is a professional women’s league.

Sparber: Yeah, the script had its flaws, but so what? I never really care about a well-made play.

It had heart, gosh dang it. How would a Canadian say that?

Aloi: *insert “Letterkenny” reference.

Sparber: I sort of wish the whole play had been written in very thick Canadian vernacular. The way, say, “Oklahoma” is written is so thick a frontier vernacular it’s basically unreadable on the page.

They end this play by singing “O Canada,” for Pete’s sake.

Aloi: Yeah, it gets weirdly patriotic at the end. Kind of out of nowhere. 

Sparber: The least they could have done is throw in a whole bunch of Canadian slang.

“Lotsa folks can’t afford to go to a game ya know, cost a loonie, eh?”

Minnesotans would have sussed out the meaning.

Aloi: It’s so Canadian, there’s even a mention of how it was a British dominion. I’m pretty sure the governor general gets a shout-out.

Sparber: They could have been slugging back bottles of O’Keefe, talking about the Royal Canadians, maybe eating Beavertails.

You can never get too Canadian for my tastes.

Aloi: Any other musings on our neighbors to the north? Or this dance play about depression era hockey?

Sparber: No yeah, for sure! Go see it, then swing by Timmies and get me a double double.

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