Jack McGee
In the new Circa One show Hope, Perry Piercy plays Irina, an elderly Ukrainian immigrant facing the end of her life. The play takes place in the near future, where in the face of dwindling public resources resulting from extensive tax cuts, a bill has been passed preventing terminally ill people with low chances of recovery from receiving anything but palliative care. Irina’s son Daniel (Tāmata Porter) is helping her break the rules, and fight her illness. He’s getting her cancer drugs off the black market, in bold defiance of his nurse sister Yulia (Mel Dodge), who works in a hospital where there’s not enough of these drugs to go around. The choice is simple. Should Irina work with Daniel and continue to fight, or should she listen to Yulia and accept her fate?