This new Canadian play is smart and timely — all the more so after the U.S. presidential election

A woman vying for office faces an uphill battle against her male opponent, who slanders her and distorts the truth for his own political gain. Sound familiar? 
I’m actually summarizing the plot of “The Bee’s Knees,” Judy Reynolds’ smart and perceptively written new drama that feels all the more timely because of recent events. 
After losing her husband to the Great War, the young widow Dolores Cole (Shannon Pitre) is convinced by her friends and her sister, Bernie (Madeline Elliott Kennedy), to run for a seat in Parliament. She’s one of merely a handful of woman to put her name on the ballot, just a few years after women are afforded the right to vote. 
But Dolores is up against a political machine: the long-time incumbent MP Jerry Fields (Michael Pollard), who will stop at nothing to retain his seat. 
Though the play runs for roughly two and a half hours, with an intermission, it rarely drags. Reynolds renders each of her characters with staggering depth, while her absorbing narrative goes beyond the tropes of a typical political drama. 
Not only do we see Dolores’s journey as she seeks election, but also the toll it takes on her personal life. The vitriolic campaign threatens her relationship with her new fiancé, Dr. Edwin Becker (Kenzie Delo). Her run for office also forces Dolores to question whether she’s doing right by her mother, Frances (an excellent Françoise Balthazar), a former suffragette now bedridden after being diagnosed with a debilitating disease. 
While Reynolds crafts a compelling story, the structure of her play could use further development. Why Bernie and Dolores’s conservative aunt Virginia (Birgitte Solem) serves as the narrator isn’t entirely clear. 
The work is also neither exactly a straight play nor a complete musical. Mboya Nicholson’s jazz compositions are always inventive, but there are far too few numbers to form a complete and cohesive score.
Almost all of these songs are afforded to Rita Blue (Jamillah Ross, in an especially touching performance), the proprietor of a local speakeasy and Jerry’s paramour.
Rita is a fascinating character, a Black woman in the 1920s fighting to find her footing in an ever-changing society. It’s telling that in the closing moments of “The Bee’s Knees,” Reynolds gives the final word to Rita, not Dolores and Bernie. But Ross’s character could be even further fleshed out throughout the work. And it’s her, not Virginia, who should serve as the play’s narrator. 
This world premiere production, directed by Reynolds and running at the Theatre Centre through Nov. 24, feels haphazardly staged, lacking a clear artistic vision. While Kit Norman’s lighting designs help to focus the action, the large set pieces by Paul and Matthew Gyulay are cumbersome, especially as they’re rolled on and off the stage. 
Still, there’s much that’s promising in Reynolds’ drama. With additional development, “The Bee’s Knees” should be ready for a larger stage.