Inspiration comes in a variety of forms for actor and playwright Bo Wilson. In the case of his new world premiere of Bonnie and Claire, opening this Friday at Virginia Repertory Theatre’s Hanover Tavern, the spark that lit his imagination was a conversation his wife, Jan Guarino, had had with a good friend.
It seems the friend’s mother-in-law and her sister, who was visiting, went on a joy ride even though the mother-in-law’s license had been suspended.
“I kind of dismissed it, but I thought to myself, What was she thinking?” Wilson says. “That question wouldn’t leave me alone. Very quickly, a play popped into my head focusing on that ill-advised night ride and the two sisters. It led me to believe there was more than I may have otherwise thought.”
Bonnie and Claire tells the story of two sisters who reluctantly reunite after a forty-year separation. Now in the autumn of their lives, Bonnie and Claire find themselves increasingly reliant on their niece, Zoe, who is trying to start a business and a family of her own while conducting delicate diplomacy between the feuding siblings.
The three leading ladies in the play are played by Jan Guarino (Claire), Melissa Johnston Price (Bonnie), and Sydnee S. Graves (Zoe). The play moves through a ten-year period, from the golden years to a time when people begin to realize they aren’t as young as they once were and can’t do a lot of things they once did. It’s a story every maturing adult can relate to, whether it’s themselves or their parents.
“Everyone knows someone like the characters in the play,” Wilson says.
It became clear to Wilson during the writing process that the play needed something extra. “I needed a younger character so I created their niece Zoe who is having to take care of them,” he says.
The first act of the play covers a time span during which the older sister Bonnie is declining. “I didn’t want the play to be too maudlin or Hallmark movie, but I didn’t want to treat aging as one big joke either,” says Wilson.
During the first act, every time Bonnie makes an entrance on stage she has another injury because of being involved in some kind of vehicular mishap. “Nothing was her fault,” he says, adding that Bonnie always explains it as other people having issues. “She has a million excuses about why it happened. She’s denying that she is becoming less competent behind the wheel.”
Bonnie’s constant request for rides makes her niece realize that she can’t forfeit her life to be Bonnie’s caretaker. It’s not until the second act of the play that audiences see Bonnie behind the wheel with her sister along for the ride.
“They go for what they think is going to be a very short ride, but they get lost,” Wilson says. “Watching the two sisters learn to live together is part of the fun of the evening.”
Playwrights, Plays, and Pandemics
Wilson had a draft of the play in 2019 and had it scheduled to run in 2020. “I was shopping it around with particular vigor to Virginia Rep,” he says. “Over the years they have been very good to me.”
He conducted a workshop and chamber reading of the play for feedback in late 2019 and early 2020 for Virginia Rep.
“I was going in the 2020 rehearsals with a script that felt very tight,” Wilson says. “Then COVID happened. When I resumed work on it recently, I was able to look at it with fresh eyes. I was still deeply pleased with the script.”
He prides himself on his plays being lean. “There is nothing there that doesn’t have to be there,” he says, adding that he also puts an emphasis on the rhythm of the comedy.
This isn’t Wilson’s first rodeo when it comes to world premieres. He has had ten world premieres total and this is his fifth world premiere at Virginia rep, not counting tours.
He is well known to Virginia Rep audiences for The Charitable Sisterhood plays, which have been produced all over the country as well as in Australia, Canada, and Wales. Earlier world premieres of his work by Virginia Rep include Mona’s Arrangements and War Story.
Wilson has written thirty other titles, and has been published by Dramatic Publishing, Samuel French, and Algonquin Press. In 2016, his play, The Bookbinder’s Tale, was a finalist for the prestigious National Playwrights’ Conference at the O’Neill TheatreCenter.
Bonnie and Claire was a “happy accident of hearing about this woman and blowing up that one afternoon into an evening of theater,” says Wilson. “I hope audiences will instantly recognize the different people onstage, either as their relatives, or as themselves. We’re all in this together, you know?”
Bonnie and Claire runs from May 13 to June 12 at Virginia Rep’s Hanover Tavern. For showtimes and tickets, go here.
