Kid Gloves is a new play by Sally Stubbs that presents a fictionalized account of the first two women to become police officers in Canada.
I was pleasantly surprised to see Colleen Wheeler in this production, as I had just seen her in Electric Company's Initiation Trilogy and had thought she was fantastic. She sinks her teeth into the meaty role of the tough and eager Constable Lurancy Harris, who realizes what it means to be one of the first female officers in Canada, the load that can carry, and the battles she will face. Her performance is spot on and she is just a wonder to watch on stage!
Her partner in crime is Dawn Petten, who plays the meeker Constable Minnie Miller, and who holds her ground portraying one of our country's trail blazers. The two together make for a perfect pair, and they take up every inch of that spotlight. The rest of the supporting cast are fairly good but the show definitely belongs to these two women, as much of history and this production, rides on their shoulders.
The show itself is not bad. There's a storyline featuring brothels and prostitutes and "Orientals" which may or may not be true to its time, but I didn't really find having a case to solve really added all that much to the play. I would rather have seen the daily lives of these women trying to prove themselves in an all-boys club. The show does manage to get that across, but the additional musical numbers and film noir-inspired crime plot were things I could have done without.
Kid Gloves plays at the Firehall Arts Centre now until December 1st.
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