It isn’t often a playwright will write with a specific actor in mind, but with Dave Deveau’s latest play Lowest Common Denominator it all started with a conversation at last year’s Jessie Awards.
“Deb [Williams] was sitting beside me when I won my award for My Funny Valentine last year and leaned across and whispered that she really wanted to work with me on a project,” says Deveau on a break from rehearsals.
Knowing Williams’ work, Deveau started to write, but it was well into the process before the award-winning playwright landed on the potentially controversial subject matter.
“I started thinking about what would happen if this middle-aged divorcee walked into a room and interrupted something,” says Deveau.
That “something” turned out to be Williams’ character Harmony, a middle-age divorcee, walking in on her seventeen year-old son Trevor, played by up-and-comer Dallas Sauer, kissing the man she had just been on a date with, played by veteran actor Shawn Macdonald.