The journey of a family with a person living with Alzheimer鈥檚 is a common one in Saskatchewan.
And while that is not a journey that he has personally gone through, it is something that playwright Daniel Macdonald wanted to address with his Dancing Sky writing debut, Blow Wind, featuring the music of Dancing Sky staple Eileen Laverty.
Loosely inspired on Shakespeare鈥檚 King Lear, in which an aging, and mentally unwell, father gets bounced around from child to child as they fight over his fortune, Macdonald鈥檚 play revolves around Kathleen and her children as they decide how best to address her mental changes that come from Alzheimer鈥檚.
Another more prominent inspiration comes from a news story of a family dealing with a mother with progressing dementia. One child decided to let the mother be who she wanted to be as dementia took hold and Macdonald wanted to address that ideal in his play.
鈥淥ne of the siblings decided to allow her to be who she wanted to be, to believe who she thought she was聽 and let that just be instead of fighting with her.鈥�
Macdonald was fascinated by that idea so that is the direction one of the siblings takes in the play.
Macdonald worked closely with Laverty on the music that would accompany the script, first getting to know Laverty outside the play before their work on the play began.
Both of them are part of the high school teaching world so they had much to talk about before starting their partnership.
The music plays an important role in telling Kathleen鈥檚 story, says Macdonald, since music is about emotion and any music has to augment the tone of the play.
鈥淵ou already have a heightened emotional connection when you start to hear the music... suddenly the music is moving through the play and creating more of a flow which makes a big difference.鈥�
Blow Wind runs are Dancing Sky Theatre in Meacham from May 11-27.
