Infinitheatre to Honor Royal Victoria Hospital with PROGRESS!

By: Sep. 16, 2015
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Infinithéâtre is honoured to pay tribute to the 122-year-strong legacy of Montreal's Royal Victoria Hospital with the inaugural production of its 2015-2016 season: Progress!, by Montreal playwright Alyson Grant. This commemorative tale set in the Royal Vic on its 'imagined' final day, sees the hospital's historic Nurse's Lounge as its actual stage, from October 19 to 31, and celebrates the closing of the city's iconic hospital.

Directed by Guy Sprung, Infinithéâtre's Artistic Director, and written by Alyson Grant (one of Dawson College's veteran English Literature professors), Progress! tells the story of Sarah, a middle-aged woman who finds herself waking in a room at the Royal Vic after trying to kill herself. She is greeted by the room's first two 'inhabitants', a Vaudevillian duo who see themselves as caretakers of all who have died there since their own deaths in the 19th century. With Sarah, however, they have set themselves a new task: help her to understand her sorrow so as to help her find the will to live. They do this through a series of vignettes from her life, moving from the very funny to the very sad, sometimes in a split second. The hospital's closure is imminent and as the very last patient, Sarah's fate is decided as walls begin to crumble around her. We are, without a doubt, in a magical world in Progress! but one that evokes Sarah's very real personal past. As the lights go out, the Royal Vic's central place in Montreal's history is also evoked, as are the people who have moved through its walls.

"I respectfully hope the play's laughter and more difficult moments will play some small part in helping others commemorate their lost loved ones. I also hope it will help all of us say goodbye to the buildings as we have known them," explains Grant.

To further honour this momentous event, the McGill University Health Centre (MUHC) will open the doors of the Royal Victoria Hospital for this special occasion, and hold an historical exhibit on-site -comprised of historic photographs, medical antiquities and other fascinating artifacts-throughout the two-week run of the play.

Progress!, alongside the concurrent MUHC historical exhibit, not only pays homage to the Royal Victoria Hospital as it brings over a century of Canadian legacy to an end, but may offer the public and countless individuals with a personal connection to the building itself, one last chance to pay their respects to this historic edifice.

 

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