Profile: Sharon Pollock

Playwright Sharon Pollock discusses her piece, Doc, and offers some insight into writing as political action.

By Murtaza Adamjee

On July 21, 2010, founding artistic director of Soulpepper Theatre, Albert Schultz, announced the production of playwright Sharon Pollock’s Doc. The show first previewed August 19, 2010 and runs until September 18, 2010 at the Young Center for the Performing Arts.

Sharon first started out as an actor without formal training in community theatre. Eventually, after meeting some of the right people, Sharon would move to Theatre New Brunswick to become a member of the company, actiing in a variety of plays.

Over time, Sharon grew tired of putting on a phony voice of different accents for different plays. She often found herself begging the question: “Why am I never in a Canadian play?” Sharon would ultimately seek an alternative agent for social change; writing as political action. Looking to tell a story that resonates in a particular voice, Sharon uses her work as a catalyst. Her plays are often about the same thing; an individual who is unable to conform to expectations of society, or a private/public arena. Sharon never hesitates to point out that there are power structures in everything - something she captures with great intensity in all of her relationships.

Her works are more interested in ethical questions; questions that often go unanswered in our daily lives. Sharon notes that anything with an answer isn’t really worth writing about. This is what drives her – the question. Essentially, her plays try to explore a specific question and turn it along the way. By creating a story, Sharon is able to gain insight into the question, and offer that insight to her audiences.

The question is often clear when writing, points out Sharon, but when transferring the question into words, what it is that’s engaging to audiences tends to become more and more narrow. As a writer, there is often this ideal image in your head. As your audience struggles through the series of events, they often get caught up in what she sees as ethical questions.

In particuluar, Doc deals with a daughter returning home to deal with ghosts of the past. Drawing on certain landmarks from her life, the play deals with issues of alcoholism as the family copes with the suicide of the mother. Audicences are able to trace the impact on what it does to the girl in childhood, and follow the impact into her as a woman in adulthood.

As a playwright, Sharon often finds herself juggling a number of different things, but finds solace in working with other artists’ creativity. Things portrayed non-verbally are more honest than verbally, and thus, she finds it crucial to embed things in-text that will give clues to stimulate others (mainly actors). According to Sharon, the danger is that you want to do it the way you saw it in your head, but good work has to have the potential for others to find in it and build on what is embedded in-text.

Having had experience as both an actor and a writer, Sharon deems herself extremely fortunate. As a result, she’s had the chance to learn what works and what doesn’t using both mindsets. Over time, Sharon has learned to trust her insticts when writing, but when sitting and watching, she watches with an analytical mind interested in the structure of the play as a whole. When people see or read plays that they have a connection to, it legitmizes their own experiences. The message is simple: You’re not alone.

For ticket information, you can call the Young Centre box office at 416-866-8666, or visit soulpepper.ca.