Tick Tock: Lives are Ripe for Change in Timepiece
The clock is winding down on Mercury Players Society’s 2025-26 all Canadian theatre season, which closes with the contemporary comedy-drama Timepiece by Vancouver playwright Kico Gonzales-Risso, April 24 to May 10.
Retired watchmaker Walter is becoming forgetful — or is he just being capricious? His wife Doris wants to downsize. Walter does not. Their adult children Patrick and Karla have lots of advice for Mom and Dad when the siblings are not arguing with each other. While memory loss in seniors is a serious issue, Gonzalez-Risso turns a potentially depressing topic into a compassionate and often hilarious story of family foibles.
Walter, played by Layne Kriwoken, is by turns stubborn, ornery, pedantic and endearing. He and ever patient Doris (Janet Hodgkinson) have been married for 50 years and Doris is becoming tired — of stairs, of keeping house, and of the constant trouble-shooting required by Walter’s moods and actions. Will he let her sell the family home they both love? Is he really building a bomb in the basement, or merely enjoying an elaborate joke? And where has he hidden the stereo?
Even their lawyer son Patrick (John Close) exhausts his courtroom skills arguing with Dad, while daughter Karla (Dayna Corbett), who traded a promising tennis career to become a music therapist, is still competing for paternal approval.
Mary Louise Phillips directs this funny, poignant and respectful look at ageing, marriage and family dynamics.
Performances: Friday and Saturday Apr 24, 25, 30, May 1, 2, 8, 9 at 7:30 pm. Sunday matinees Apr 26, May 3, 10 at 2:30pm
Theatre BC Zone Festival: May 14, 7:30, at Ladysmith Little Theatre
