Catch and Release, the movie adaptation of Jane Martin’s 1993 Pulitzer Prize-nominated play Keely and Du, has just been widely released by Game Theory Films on iTunes Canada. Nancy Palk, renowned for her work in Canadian theatre, plays Du, a Christian extremist who kidnaps the pregnant Keely (Laurence Leboeuf) to a remote northern island, in order to prevent her from aborting her fetus. The film also stars Aidan Devine as Robert, the pair’s sole connection to the outside world. Keely eventually realizes that she is a pawn in an anti-abortion agenda – and that escape from her wilderness prison is impossible. Keely must rely on her wits to outplay her captors if she is to regain her freedom.
Canadian theatregoers, especially those living in Toronto, are intimately familiar with Palk’s work as an actor and director. Not only has she appeared on most major Canadian stages during her decades-long career, she is a founding member and resident artist at Soulpepper, where she performs regularly. Her body of work is vast, and her bio on the Soulpepper website is surprisingly brief, perhaps indicative of a circumspect humility. “Gosh, it’s nice to know that you’ve seen me on stage,” she smiles, genuinely pleased. “It’s always a pleasure to know that people have seen my work there, because it’s doubtful they would have seen much of my screen work … like many Canadian actors, I think.” Catch and Release should change that. The film’s directors Laurie Colbert and Dominique Cardona are avid theatre goers, and, like many of us, had followed Palk’s work for years. They had Palk in mind for the role of Du right from the start, when they began adapting the play by Jane Martin: “At least that’s what they told me, and I’m sticking to that story. It’s very flattering.”
Given the current shutdown of public events due to the COVID-19 pandemic, the character drama of Catch and Release seems well-timed. The film explores abortion rights, trauma and religious extremism through a sharply feminist perspective. The terrified Keely clashes with her captor Du, whom Palk embodies so completely that it is impossible to imagine anyone else in the role. A nuanced portrait of dualities, Palk’s Du guts the fish that she catches, prunes the tomato plants in the garden, and tends to a terrified Keely while spouting religious rhetoric with a steely calm that is at once menacing and mesmerizing.
Many facets of Du’s character excited Palk, though by far the biggest attraction was the arc of her story: “a woman who grew up and lived by a certain set of rules, confident in her Christian faith, is isolated from the rest of her community, and therefore able to really listen to another human being’s story, so different from her own, and is somehow able to change, and see that person’s point of view.” Palk sees Du’s transformation as likely to be resonant – even “appropriate for this time of isolation and learning”. To play Du, Palk had to find the supreme confidence of faith. She needed to believe in dogma and the righteousness of judgement toward others. So Palk travelled the world of the internet, listening to Christian music and watching interviews with very confident believers. A little closer to home, “my husband’s family are midwest Christians, and I have observed them for years, so that helped.”
Since premiering at the Cinéfest Sudbury International Film Festival in 2018 under the working title Keely and Du, Catch and Release has garnered acclaim, including the World Cinema Award at the Woodstock Film Festival, Best Feature Film at the Nevada Women’s Film Festival, and Best Directors at the High Falls Film Festival and Cordillera International Film Festival. The film provides much to discuss about a woman’s autonomy and the power of religion to oppress the rights and freedoms of individuals. Catch and Release was also gorgeously shot in Ontario’s lush Muskoka region. For Palk, spending time in beautiful Temagami was one of the “biggest thrills” of filming, along with “learning how to cast a fishing line, drive a motor boat, skin a fish, chop wood, and load a rifle! I mean, what’s not fun about that?” she laughs.
The range of Palk’s prolific career is astonishing. My final question is whether a role exists that she hasn’t yet played but would like to. “I think the role I’m most excited about these days is in a new play, The Housekeeper (A Rural Fairy Folk Tragedy with Humor) by my very dear friend and colleague, Gregory Prest.” When that play and that role are staged awaits to be seen, but she hopes it will be “at Soulpepper, when our world allows us all to congregate again.”
In the meantime, Catch and Release is happily available for streaming. And performers and theatregoers should stay patient and take a cue from the veteran actor’s equanimity: “I feel so humbled during these troubled times. I need to read, and listen and learn, and process, and see the world through a different lens other than my own. It’s sort of a gift, to slow down, and take it in. It feels like an opportunity.”
© Arpita Ghosal, SesayArts Magazine, 2020
