Theatre group hopes production of Rent brings P.E.I. audiences 'new perspective'

Maggie Wright hadn't been involved in community theatre since she moved back home to Prince Edward Island from Ontario about 15 years ago. 

That's not to say her love of theatre waned. When she was younger, after all, the first and only poster she had on her wall was of the hit Broadway musical Rent. 

She'd always related to Rent's subject matter and to its creator, the late Jonathan Larson. The musical is a raw documentary of the lives of Larson and his friends in New York City in the midst of the HIV/AIDS crisis. 

It wasn't until recent years, though, that Wright began to draw parallels to the play's themes and the social issues she started to see affecting her home province. 

"I've been looking around and seeing for myself the housing crisis and homelessness increasing, basically a lot of the issues that were in Rent coming into my hometown, which I didn't expect," she said. 

"The only thing I could think of to help this situation was to bring Jonathan Larson into the picture because for me that has always been a healing thing." 

Starting on April 10, Wright hopes Larson's musical can help Islanders open their hearts and heal, too. She's directing Rent for A Community Theatre, or ACT. 

The show will run on various dates at the Florence Simmons Performance Hall at Holland College in Charlottetown until April 20. 

It's a big and ambitious production for a community theatre to take on, not to mention securing the ability to perform it from the company that owns the rights to the musical. 

"Theatre has gotten more expensive these days," said ACT producer and actor Keir Malone. "Just getting a space and getting the rights to a show are complicated.

"There are a lot of people out there very excited to see the show and we are thrilled to give it to them."

Rent was a Broadway sensation when it premiered in the 1990s, winning the Pulitzer Prize for Drama and the Tony Award for Best Musical. Its best-known songs include Seasons of Love and La Vie Boheme. 

The story centres around Mark and his friend group of fellow artists struggling to make it in bohemian New York, and how people who own buildings and businesses in the city try to push them aside. 

Hayden Lysecki plays Mark in ACT's production. Lysecki said he embraced the character's role as both narrator and documentarian of his friends' experiences.