Dancing Sky Theatre once again turned into a hockey arena for the return of Kenneth Brown’s play, Life After Hockey.
The one man show was first shown on the Meacham based stage in 1998 and with the return part of the 20th anniversary celebration that has been happening at Dancing Sky over the past year.
The new showing also means the return of Sean Hoy who made a triumphant return to the stage as Rink Rat Brown.
Hoy has moved on from performing and has been a recruitment officer and firefighter with the Calgary Fire Department.
But he was more than happy to revive the role of Rink Rat Brown as he spends the duration of the play telling this tall tale of how he scored the overtime game winning goal in the 1984 Canada Cup against Russia.
Rink Rat, this “prairie everyman” says Hoy is “living” every prairie kids fantasy even as an adult with a wife, kids, and a job.
Everyone would know someone or knew someone who knew someone like Rink Rat Brown, he says.
“It’s one of the those plays that really evokes life on the prairies for one thing and the shared experience most of us have as Canadians where we’ve grown up playing on outdoor ice rinks.”
Rink Rat is also a big Montreal Canadiens fan, which factors quite heavily into the story, with plenty of little stories inserted into the story; one of which is of him telling the story of meeting Guy Lafleur.
Since much of the play is about memory and, especially since him and Director Angus Ferguson have aged along with the play, Hoy says their perspective on the play has aged along with them.
The message that playwright Kennth Brown is talking about is a Canada that is gone now, says Hoy.
“You don’t see kids just going out on a Saturday morning playing shinny. Everybody is jumping in the minivan and being coached 12 months of the year now. Back then, you just played and that is a huge part of childhood that our kids don’t get.”
Compared to when the play was first performed, Hoy says that they are more aware of that message now that they are older.
Being able to step back into that role is something that Hoy is very grateful for since he fell in love with the role back in 1998.
In order to tell the story of Rink Rat, Hoy says he brings a lot of his own stories to bring those words to life.
Being the sole performer in a one man show, Hoy says it is strange not to have another person’s energy to bounce off of so he solely relied on the audience as a place to take his energy.
Doing the play 20 years ago, Hoy says he remembers the audience engaging with his character. The play even started with Hoy’s Rink Rat asking the audience a question.
“It’s not like you’re going to a pantomime or stand up where you’re eliciting responses from the audience but there is a lot of give and take (between) me, the musician, and the audience.”
Hoy considers the play a Canadian treasure deserving of more Canadian fame and Kenneth Brown up their with W.O. Mitchell in terms of writing the prairie story.
