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In 2006, Alida played Lizzie McMullen in Halo, which centers around life in the small town of Nately, Nova Scotia, which is turned upside down one day when an apparition of Jesus appears on the side of a Tim Horton’s, a prominent Canadian donut chain. The cast of characters includes Casey, a young donut shop employee and her boyfriend Jansen; Father JJ, a local priest; and Donald and Lizzie McMullen, the father and sister of a girl in a coma, some of whom are hoping for a miracle; others of whom are disbelieving and cynical.
The main plot follows Casey, who can’t wait to leave small-town Nately behind and move back to the big city; Jansen, who wants to believe in the vision, but finds his faith ridiculed by Casey, the person who’s supposed to love him; and Father JJ, who befriends Casey and spends time grappling with her—and his own—questions of faith and belief.
Running parallel to Casey and Father JJ’s story is the story of Donald McMullen, a local widowed farmer whose two daughters were in a devastating car accident several years before. His younger daughter, Meg, has been in a coma for the past two years, and after the accident, his older daughter, Lizzie, moved to Toronto to pursue a career in advertising. As the play opens, she returns to Nately for the first time since the accident, finding her father still sitting vigil over Meg’s bedside. Donald is a man of faith who believes that the vision has the power to perform a miracle in Meg’s life; Lizzie is a hurt young woman who wants her father to stop waiting on medical miracles and rebuild a relationship with her, rather than spending all his time with Meg.
As the stories weave in and out of each other, and as the truths about the vision on the wall are revealed, the characters grapple with questions of faith, family, and love, and they re-examine their preconceived ideas about God, miracles, and what they really mean.
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