A conversation about medical assistance in dying led this author to write a play about the controversial issue

“I’ve never had an audience react to my work the way they’ve reacted to this,” said Mand, about the play’s run earlier this year at London, Ont.’s Grand Theatre, co-producer with Toronto’s Harold Green Jewish Theatre. It begins performances here this week.

“There were lots of talkbacks, panels and discussions. People would sometimes stay for hours afterwards, talking about their personal experiences either with MAID or someone they knew who was dying. I had someone tell me, ‘You know, my mom has qualified for MAID and wants to go through with it, and I am the thing holding her back. And after seeing this play, I realize I have to think about getting out of her way.’”

“In Seven Days” centres on Rachel (Shaina Silver-Baird), a 30-year-old Toronto lawyer who treks out to London to have Shabbat dinner with her father, Sam (Ron Lea), and his girlfriend, Shelley (Mairi Babb). Once there, though, she discovers her dad, who’s been living with excruciating pain for years, has decided to end his life in exactly seven days. Rachel stays the week, trying to convince him out of it, enlisting Eli (Ralph Small), their rabbi — and Sam’s friend since childhood — to do the same.

Mand is quick to point out that her goal with the play was not to persuade people who see it to go through with MAID, or tell their loved ones to do it or not.

“But there is something about how we can hold back the people in our lives because we don’t want to say goodbye,” she said. “It’s so human and understandable. It was fascinating to hear reactions to the play. The people who approached me after performances came from all different cultures and age groups. I remember a 20-year-old told me that her best friend had just committed suicide and she was having a very hard time processing it. This play, she told me, helped her start to feel again.”

The idea for “In Seven Days” came not from news headlines but from real life.

When Mand’s parents moved from the suburbs of Toronto to London, they joined a reform synagogue, where her father miraculously reconnected with his childhood best friend, with whom he had lost touch. The man had been living with an illness for years and eventually qualified for MAID. In Judaism, assisted death goes against the first commandment, “Thou shalt not kill.” Because of this, the London Jewish community was divided between those who supported him and those who didn’t.

Things hit really close to home when Mand was discussing the matter with her younger brother. What if, she casually asked, their father was so sick and in pain that he was thinking of MAID?

“And my brother, who’s very smart, said he didn’t know how anyone could contemplate it,” she said. “He called it selfish. And I didn’t realize until that moment that I felt the complete opposite. I’ve had medical issues and so have other members of my family. So after this conversation I remember thinking, ‘Oh, this is a play.’”

Mand has grounded “In Seven Days” with humour and lots of personal details, including many involving her own deep bond with her father.

“Writing it made me anxious, sad, and it made me laugh so hard at times because I was thinking about my dad and me,” she said. “It made me grieve the idea of him passing even though he’s alive. There’s a detail in there that draws on how my father used to call me on his way home from work and sing the Stevie Wonder song ‘I Just Called to Say I Love You.’ It was the song we danced to at my wedding.”

At the same time, she studiously researched the issue. She talked to rabbis from different sectors of Judaism, as well as anyone who would discuss their personal experiences involving MAID. She interviewed medical professionals, including those who had taken part in the process and those who had participated off the record.

She’s fine with people labelling “In Seven Days” an issue play.

“These days, it feels like the way to get an audience’s attention is by shining a bright light on issues,” she said. “Especially since COVID, audiences want to know what they’re getting from a story. We don’t just present characters and situations anymore. We’re looking at specific issues, especially from certain communities.”

The early response to her play has also convinced her to deal with other relatable themes in her next works.

“I think death, weddings, and the birth of children and how you want to raise them are three big issues,” she said.

One of the plays she’s working on is about a wedding and how it impacts a family; another is about a couple — one’s Jewish, the other isn’t — who are trying to figure out if they should circumcise their son. (She’s also working on adapting F. Scott Fitzgerald’s “The Great Gatsby” for the Stratford Festival and continues to write for TV.)

Working on “In Seven Days” has made Mand her reflect not just on her relationship with her parents but also with her young daughter.

“Becoming a parent changed me on a molecular level,” she said. “Writing this play made me think about legacy, what parents leave behind. My daughter is almost four, so she has no context for anything other than her little world. But I want to make her proud. The idea of making something that one day she can look back on and be proud of brings me a lot of hope and joy.”

“In Seven Days” runs from Saturday to May 16 at the Greenwin Theatre, Meridian Centre for the Arts, 5040 Yonge St. Visit hgjewishtheatre.com for tickets and more information.