Having to have sex might sound dreamy to those surviving a dry spell, but for Gil and Sarah Jaysmith, years of scheduled sex in an attempt to conceive was no treat.
As years of therapy, drugs, invasive procedures and heartbreak wore on, the partners in life and songwriting made music about their experiences.
Now, with the help of the Pipedream Theatre Project, they’ve conceived One Plus One: A Ticking Clock of a Musical, which premieres at the Arts Club’s Revue Stage on Granville Island June 3 to 13.
“The musical Next to Normal won the Pulitzer for talking about depression in 2010. Now that’s only a few years ago, and apparently it was not cool, or it hadn’t been done, to talk about something as major and as all-encompassing that everyone knows about as depression. So clearly the conversation about IVF [in vitro fertilization] and infertility is that much further behind,” said Gil. “It’s important to realize that unless there’s a musical about something, it’s not really receiving full attention from society.”
One Plus One tells the story of two married couples in their 30s. The younger duo, Alex and Madison, are strapped for cash and deal with constant pressure from Madison’s family. Oliver and Holly are older, rich and seemingly perfect, but are also struggling to have a child.
The Jaysmiths say neither couple is them but bits of them resonate in each character in the musical that’s directed by April Green, with Keith Opatovsky serving as dramaturge.
The Jaysmiths started trying to have a child 15 year ago, when Sarah was 26 and Gil was 30. They saw various specialists in England and then resolved to take a break when they relocated to Vancouver in 2007.
“We thought well, OK, here we are in a new country, new city, let’s give ourselves permission to take a break from hardcore trying for a year or two. Yeah, it didn’t last,” said Gil, whose career as a videogame programmer prompted their move. “It was very difficult to pretend that we were just going to let things happen naturally, so after a couple of years it was back to the grindstone of scheduled sex and going to see specialists and try this drug or try this technique.”
“It’s hard enough emotionally, already, and then you add in the extra hormones from treatments and it gets really quite crazy,” added Sarah, who teaches singing and works as a pianist and composer.
“And really the only thing worse than the normal realizing that you’re getting your period is when you get your period having spent $15,000 [on one cycle of IVF],” she said.
With IVF, the egg is fertilized with the sperm outside the body and then inserted into the uterus. Gil explained a woman is then considered pregnant for two weeks until proven otherwise. That was the inspiration for the song “Fortnight from Hell” that appears in One Plus One.
“Most of our songs are fairly tuneful, but we like to have some stuff in there that is really kind of dissonant and difficult to listen to because sometimes life’s like that,” Gil said.
There’s a short rock song that describes the menstrual cycle, ballads, a passionate tango, a ditty about providing a sperm sample and an up-tempo gospel number called “The Whole Damn World Is Pregnant.”
“You’re walking around and everyone’s got a pram, everyone’s got a pot belly, everyone on Facebook is like, ‘Please welcome the birth of our new child,’” Gil said. “You see some sausage dog walking by with a ground effects belly and you’re like, oh please.”
But the Jaysmiths needn’t be jealous any longer. Their story finally has a happy ending. The day after her 40th birthday, Sarah learned she was pregnant. Their baby was due May 30, which could have messed with their musical’s premiere, but their son Galen arrived early, April 16.
“The fact that he was born six weeks early has meant that we actually will be able to go and see the show, instead of being at home dealing with him and his incredible capacity for drinking milk,” Gil said.
“I can’t believe that the show is actually happening,” Sarah said. “I definitely can’t believe that there’s a baby on my shoulder after so many years,” she added as Galen gurgled. “It’s really quite something.”
For more information, see pipedream.ca.
