Elwood P. Dowd has a friend named Harvey. Harvey is kind, always present and deeply loyal. He’s also a six-foot-three-and-a-half-inch invisible rabbit.
Whether Harvey is real, imagined or something in between is the central question of Harvey, Mary Chase’s Pulitzer Prize-winning play opening April 24 at Ladysmith Little Theatre.
The story centres on Dowd, an affable man whose best friend is an unseen pooka, a giant rabbit from Celtic folklore. His sister Veta is mortified that his delusion might damage their social standing and tries to have him committed to a psychiatric hospital. But the plan goes awry, and in the confusion, Veta herself is locked away. As reality slips and reshapes, the play keeps pushing us to reconsider who needs changing and why.
The play’s director, Alan Holmes, leans into the play’s humour but is just as interested in what it has to say about kindness, reality and how we treat those who see the world differently.
“It is a very fun, silly comedy, and obviously we want to keep the fun and the spirit of it,” said Holmes. “But at the same time there is also an undertone that’s more introspective. How do we treat each other? How can we see the world through each other's eyes?”
That quiet undercurrent of radical kindness runs through Holmes’s interpretation of the play, which aims to explore some big questions through humour: who gets seen? Who gets dismissed? And who gets to define what’s real or “normal”?
Few lines capture that spirit more clearly than one of Elwood’s most memorable: “I've wrestled with reality for 35 years, Doctor, and I'm happy to state I finally won out over it.”
For Holmes, also an actor last seen as the Killer Queen in Ladysmith Little Theatre’s We Will Rock You, the story resonates on a deeply personal level.
“For a lot of my life I felt very much like an outcast or a freak,” he said, then added with a laugh, “And I got told that a lot, so that's part of what backed that up.”
With this production, he’s embracing the outcasts, and leaning into the fantastical and surreal, creating a vivid backdrop for themes that feel all too real in today’s climate of political and cultural backlash.
“There's a lot of stuff going on about either trying to be different, or you need to conform, and there's obviously lots of anger,” he said. “But I think that's an even better reason to try and explore that and show that it’s OK to be different.”
While he invites audiences to draw their own conclusions, these are questions Holmes has considered deeply himself.
“You know, we don't always have to agree on everything. It's OK to just leave each other alone. That’s an option. You don't have to lock people up. You can just agree to disagree, or just be like, ‘Hey, you're a beautiful little freak, you go have fun.’”
As Elwood P. Dowd tells Dr. Chumley, the head of the psychiatric institution, “Years ago, my mother used to say to me, she’d say, ‘In this world, Elwood, you must be oh, so smart or oh, so pleasant.’ Well, for years I was smart. I recommend pleasant.”
Harvey may be nearly 80 years old, but Holmes’s production aims to make it feel current. In a time of rising mental health awareness, a deeper understanding of neurodivergence, and growing resistance to outdated labels, he’s asking audiences to reconsider what, and who, we call “crazy.”
“I want people to have fun,” Holmes said. “It’s a comedy. But also, when they walk away, I hope there's a sense of, ‘Oh yeah, maybe we should be kinder to each other.’”
Harvey runs April 24 to May 11 at Ladysmith Little Theatre, with evening shows at 7:30 p.m. on April 24-26, May 1-3, and May 8-10. Matinees begin at 2 p.m. on April 27, May 4, and May 11. Tickets are $30 for non-members and $25 for members or groups of 10 or more. For more information, visit ladysmiththeatre.com or call 250-924-0658.
