At Tarragon Theatre, Extraspace, Toronto, Ont.
Written by Charlotte Corbeil-Coleman
Directed by Richard Rose
Set and costumes by Joanna Yu
Lighting by André du Toit
Sound by Thomas Ryder Payne
Cast: Columpa C. Bobb
Vivien Endicott-Douglas
Virgilia Griffith
Michaela Washburn
A complex look at women prisoners in the Canadian prison system and how everybody around them is affected as well.
The Story. Sid and Brit are two young women in prison. Sid is overactive, combative and often gets into trouble with the Guard. She is punished with frequent visits to solitary. Brit seems to be a model prisoner. She is accused of murdering her husband but says it was self-defence and apparently it was. Every person referenced in the story is intricately entwined in the lives of Sid, Brit and Kit, who will join them later. How they endure, survive, engage and cope is what the play is about and more.
The Production. White pails dot the stage. The pails will be used as a toilet, seats, hiding places, even weapons. Sid (Vivien Endicott-Douglas) and Brit (Virgilia Griffith) sit on two pails that have been turned upside down. They banter, joke and josh each other. As Sid, Vivien Endicott-Douglas has a goofy humour about her, always ready to joke and tease. But she can just as easily turn nasty, hard and combative. Sid usually saves this harsh behaviour for the Guard (Columpa C. Bobb) who is equally as hard-nosed. Brit is much softer, easy-going, positive thinking, As Brit, Virgilia Griffith’s softer manner is a balanced foil for the more abrasive Sid. You can see it must have taken a lot of abuse for Brit to act in what she says was self defence. Brit is graceful, Sid is jumpy and unpredictable.
The Guard, as played by Columpa C. Bobb, is a stereotypical unsmiling, unsentimental woman of power. She treats Sid roughly when she takes her to solitary. When Sid returns she is subdued, almost drugged.
The Guard also brings more and more pails on stage and arranges them around the set until it seems the space if packed with them. One wonders why director Richard Rose (or the playwright, Charlotte Corbeil-Coleman?) chose to do this, until it comes clear later in the scene. They are a device used quite violently. It seems a long way to go for a device and a scene.
Vivien Endicott-Douglas, Virgilia Griffith and Michaela Washburn play other characters besides Sid, Brit and Kit respectively. It soon becomes clear in the narrative that almost every reference to another character in any of the three prisoner’s lives are all intertwined so intricately it’s like trying to take apart a spider’s web to see how they are all connected.
If I have a quibble it’s that the Guard has a soliloquy to the audience. Columpa C. Bobb tears up and explains how she is emotionally invested in her prisoner’s lives. The speech comes from nowhere. The Guard has not shown any of her guarded girls any compassion, softness, or tenderness, so the tears and emotion is unsupported. Perhaps another look at her character and her behaviour might be in order to create a more truthful, supported scene.
It is a brutal world that Richard Rose has created in his direction. There is some laughter, as Sid and Brit tease each other, but playwright Charlotte Corbeil-Coleman is focusing on the dark, hard world of women’s prisons in Canada.
Comment. We’ve seen these kinds of gripping dramas before: initially naïve, young women are hardened by life in prison. The guards are brutal. There is no escaping this relentless overbearing power grinding them down. What Corbeil-Coleman does to elevate her play above the others is to show how intricately their lives are affected and intertwined. A young child who witnesses a physical beating of her mother, who then acts in self-defence to retaliate with drastic results, is affected by the murder as much as her parent. A parent suffering in prison and a child suffering elsewhere experience the same emotions and damages. It’s not just the person found guilty who is in prison who is suffering, it’s all those people who are connected to the prisoner who are as well. We sometimes forget that. Corbeil-Coleman in her gripping play, reminds us of that.
Tarragon Theatre in Association with Green Light Arts presents:
Opened: April 3, 2019.
Closes: May 5, 2019.
Running Time: 90 minutes, approx.
www.taragontheatre.com
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In response to “If I have a quibble it’s that the Guard has a soliloquy to the audience. Columpa C. Bobb tears up and explains how she is emotionally invested in her prisoner’s lives. The speech comes from nowhere. The Guard has not shown any of her guarded girls any compassion, softness, or tenderness, so the tears and emotion is unsupported. Perhaps another look at her character and her behaviour might be in order to create a more truthful, supported scene.”
What you seem to take issue with is I would argue the point of the piece. We see the Guard be compassionate with Kit in Section 2. She calls Kit by name. It is in fact her compassion and concern that makes her the victim of the hostage taking. Then in Section 1, we see the Guard, now dealing with PTSD, forced to be emotionally removed for the sake of her own safety. Compassion in a prison got in her in serious danger, it did lasting emotional harm to her. And it is that conflict, that tension of working in this harsh environment that leads to the stunning final monologue.