REVIEW: In Why It’s (im)Possible at GCTC, parenting is an ever-evolving process

iPhoto caption: Photo by Curtis Perry.

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/By Alexa MacKie / Jan 29, 2025

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Life as a single mother is far from easy. 

A call from day camp asking you to pick up your child early interrupts your average day. Your child’s morning play activities wake you from your beauty sleep during a cottage trip. Constant thoughts about your child’s wellbeing keep you up at night. 

But in the end, a mother’s love for her child is what instills the courage needed for both to carry on. 

Or at least, that’s how single parenthood is depicted in the “precarious times” in which SweetnFab Collective’s Why It’s imPossible takes place. The solo show runs at Ottawa’s Great Canadian Theatre Company until February 2. 

A dark brown wooden chair and a cell phone are the sole objects accompanying Kaitlin Hickey’s simple set design, with a green raised square platform at the centre of the stage. Evalyn Parry’s direction prioritizes Sophia Fabiilli’s earnest script and Zoë Sweet’s dynamic performance over larger visual enhancements.

But despite the spare setting, Parry’s focused direction fills the theatre with vivid storytelling, a deep and touching mood, and profound themes that are well beyond simple.

Beth, played by Sweet, is a 45-year-old mother to a young child, whom she lives with in her own mother’s basement. The play beautifully jumps between different snippets from Beth’s life, as she grapples with single parenthood and learns to support her child’s most authentic self as they navigate their gender identity. 

Why It’s imPossible doesn’t provide any answers as to what parenthood should look like, or recognize a single correct way to raise a child. Instead, through writing that’s both lighthearted and purposeful, Fabiilli’s script centres questions that parents should ask themselves about providing for trans children.

The issues the play raises are highly relevant. In the context of an increasingly difficult political and social climate for trans youth, Why It’s imPossible addresses the need for familial support. Beth’s journey is a testament to the powerful capabilities of parental love. 

The show’s storylines play out in a slightly scattered manner, reflecting Beth’s disorderly life. Sometimes Beth narrates from the GO Train, speaking about a watchful passenger sitting across from her. At other moments, Beth is on a cottage trip, or coming home late to her child’s dinosaur-themed birthday party.

Every storyline relates back to the idiosyncrasies of the mother-child relationship. The mundanity in some of Beth’s experiences makes Why It’s imPossible all the more touching and familiar. The play is also careful to tie all its plotlines together and ensure that every loose end finds its way back to the core themes: parenting, identity, and acceptance.  

Sweet trembles with her character’s anxieties when delivering poignant monologues. She slips into distinctive gestures and voices as she moves between characters: A hand loosely holding a vape and a croaky voice for her cottage neighbour Patty, and a closed-off, arms-crossed demeanour with a whimper for her child feeling misunderstood. 

There are delicate details in Jesse MacMillan’s sound design — like the distant sounds of children laughing that play during the show’s first few seconds — that create a soft and fitting atmosphere. But the stripped-down nature of the performance puts the focus on Beth’s shifting emotions.

Why It’s imPossible’s oscillation between humour and melancholy hammers home how motherhood can pull you in many different directions. Beth quickly finds out that she does not have all of the solutions to everything she and her child are facing. Instead, the show concludes, the value of parenthood lies in the efforts made toward a child’s brighter future.

Why It’s imPossible runs at the Great Canadian Theatre Company until February 2. Tickets are available here.

Intermission reviews are independent and unrelated to Intermission’s partnered content. Learn more about Intermission’s partnership model here.

WRITTEN BY

Alexa MacKie

Alexa MacKie is a journalism and law honours student at Carleton University in Ottawa. She dabbles in all areas as a freelance reporter, but her favourite coverage is of the arts and local communities, with bylines in Apartment613, the Glebe Report, and the Charlatan. She likes to read, write, listen to show tunes, and binge watch new seasons of her favourite TV shows.

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