Stratford Film Festival brings endearing film Dancing on the Elephant to city hall

Nora (Sheila McCarthy) and Edna (Mary Walsh) form an unlikely bond in a retirement home.

By: Lisa Chester

A special VIP screening of the heartfelt film Dancing on the Elephant is brought to Stratford by the Stratford Film Festival (SFF) for two showings on July 22 at 4 p.m. and 7 p.m. with a reception in between.

The Q-and-A following will feature actor Sheila McCarthy as well as screenwriter Lisa Hagen, who will both be on hand for the reception.

“Lisa is a writer from New Hamburg and this film is adapted from her stage play. What is unique is she actually got to adapt the play to film herself, which is quite unusual. Usually there is a novel or a play to adapt by a different screenwriter. So Lisa will be there to discuss the behind-the-scenes process of what it was like adapting her play to screenplay and seeing it come alive on the big screen,” said SFF director Megan Smith-Harris.

McCarthy plays Nora, whose family decides for her, not with her, that it is time for her to move into a retirement home. Smith-Harris thinks she is perfect for the role because of the sense of vulnerability and relatability she carries. In the residence, she befriends Edna played by Mary Walsh of This Hour Has 22 Minutes fame.

“A lot of people don’t realize that Mary Walsh is not just a brilliant comic actor, she’s also a fantastic dramatic actor and she plays Edna, who’s already in the retirement home. They form an unlikely friendship and she’s – as Mary is often portrayed – she’s irreverent, she’s funny, she’s blunt, but underneath all that there’s a lot of compassion and loneliness, which I think they capture really well,” Smith-Harris said.

Hagen was inspired by her grandmother, who she was very close to and would tell wild stories which she incorporated into a one act play. That evolved into a full play set in Cape Breton and it just kind of grew more and more and had more of an element of living life to the fullest right to the end.

“I really enjoyed writing for film because of being able to move different locations and being able to have flashbacks more easily. It really afforded a bigger dramatic range,” said Hagen. “This film is very collaborative. As a writer you sell your script and it leaves your tender loving care, the producers and directors now own it. These producers were very kind, and allowed me to do rewrites with them so there was a collaborative effort there adding a more finer touch to the story.”

All writers feel a connection to their characters, but the one she felt the most connected to is Edna because she carried a lot of Hagen’s grandmother in her. McCarthy’s Nora came out of the gate slowly but picked up speed.

“She became a very grounded person, a character that drives the dramatic engine so that character grew and grew and then Sheila got a hold of her and just made it a beautiful role. She made it grow from analog television to 4K television,” said Hagen.

McCarthy loved the script right away upon reading it and was attracted to the project immediately. “It was fairly immediate; I loved the idea of this friendship that develops in their later years and the Thelma and Louise aspect of two old broads trying to escape their lives in this retirement home. I loved the heart and I love the friendship. Then when I heard Mary Walsh might be attached that sealed the deal for me. Mary and I have done several projects together and I thought that’s perfect casting and these roles were kind of tailor made for us in a way,” she said.

This is a story worth telling and a story well told by the author. The film was shot in Halifax making it a dream to work on with a crew that was top notch and warm and friendly, as East Coasters are known to be. Together, Mary Walsh and Sheila McCarthy laughed a lot and cried a lot.

Putting a loved one in a retirement home is something almost every family must face at one point or another, so this film will resonate with many. The most surprising demographic came in St. John’s and there was a group of students from Labrador doing an educational aspect of the festival.

“That was a group of eight young women age 13 through 16 and they bawled through the whole movie and they came up after and said, ‘I have to call my grandma right away,’ and I was so surprised that it resonated with them because you don’t think 13-year-olds are thinking about that,” Hagen smiled at the memory.

For more information, visit stratfordfilmfestival.com