Live and in person at a private residence in Toronto, Ont. produced by Talk is Free Theatre. Playing until Jan. 31, 2025.
Written by Adam Meisner
Directed by Maja Ardal
Costume design by Laura Delchiaro
Cast: Maja Ardal
Amy Keating
Richard Lam
Jamie McRoberts
Alexander Thomas
And fascinating play about the future and the past, given a beautiful production in a gorgeous private home.
In the year 2150, humans have become gender neutral and use the pronoun ‘Ish’ to identify themselves. This story centres around two historians, ISH56 and ISH62, who want to transform an old residence for the upcoming sesquicentennial. As the museum is being created, members of the group become too enamored with their gendered counterparts and eventually start to re-enact the dangerous behaviours of their ancestors.
The Story. We are in 2150 years and it’s a world in which humans are gender-neutral. The pronouns are rarely used (except for “We” etc. “I” almost never begins a sentence. Contractions are not used either. People are not referred to by name but by the word “ISH” if it’s about a third person. The only particular identifier in the program of a character’s name is the word “ISH” followed by a number such as ISH62, ISH34 etc., although no character calls any other character by that full designation. ISH62 seems to be the person in charge. ISH40 is their colleague who offers advice and ideas. ISH34 is an engineer who inspects the house. ISH 20 is a young person working on the project and ISH84 is an elder of the group. The number in the ‘name’ seems to suggest an age.
This ISH group of people is restoring the last house built in 1999. They are meticulous in recreating the furniture, props and other aspects of that time. The purpose is to create the house as a museum. But then things happen and the group dynamic changes when the group spends time in the house restoring it, and they begin identifying with their ancestors.
The Production. The play was first produced by Talk is Free Theatre in Barrie, Ont. in 2018 in a theatre. This time Talk is Free Theatre is producing the play in Toronto, Ont. in a beautiful private home, with the audience sitting around the space. Perhaps setting the play in a house so exquisite in its design as this one is, in which going to the bathroom is an adventure in exquisite décor, is another wink of Artistic Producer, Arkady Spivak, which in turn illuminates the misguided efforts of the ISH group. The audience is compelled to look and think about everything.
Laura Delchiaro has designed costumes for the ‘ISH-group’ who are all dressed in the same coloured jump-suits, wearing the same kind of toque and the same coloured shoes that does not differentiate them. Gender has been abolished during the ‘erasure’, the time when the pronouns were lost; as was gender differentiation; names etc. They all look androgynous.
Maya Ardal directs the production with precision, attention to detail and compassion. There is a greeting the characters give each other that involves a gentle breath in, arms held back creating an openness. It’s a gentle sense of the human beings hiding in that androgyny. It’s a lovely gesture.
Because there are no contractions in the speech, the results sound stilted and artificial, which is the intent. The voices are soft, almost uninflected, perhaps sounding like computer-generated voices, but never dull sounding.
While the characters have no identifiable gender, the actors playing them do, so that will be the best way of describing the various performances.
ISH62 (Maja Ardal) is a commanding leader of the project. ISH62’s comments are direct and to the point with a touch of being officious. Maja Ardal’s body language is brisk as well, movements are quick and matter of fact. As ISH40, Richard Lam, is gentle in his quietness, mindful of the rules of his time and curious about what went on in 1999. ISH20, a curious Jamie McRoberts, has gender yearnings to be a girl. ISH34 is an engineer, and as played by Amy Keating, begins by being timid about anything out of her realm, but then gets bolder. Alexander Thomas plays ISH84 with sweet grace. Here is a character who wants to reimagine his late grandmother, without actually knowing what that entails.
Time spent in the 1999 house changes things, as the group brings in what they consider to be artifacts from 1999. The subtle change in the characters because of the house in that time, is fascinating, heartbreaking and uplifting.
Comment. In his play, For Both Resting and Breeding, Adam Meisner has written an intriguing, imaginative look into the future with a wink to the present. He doesn’t explain the change from going from ‘today’ when we are sex crazed and perhaps keenly aware of the shifting focus in gender fluidity, to 150 years in the future to a world without gender or the defining pronouns. Language, attitudes, individuality and history are examined. Adam Meisner has a compelling imagination and a smart facility with language that in turn gets us to think about our world and the future he has created.
Produced by Talk is Free Theatre
Runs until Jan. 31, 2025.
Running time: 1 hour 40 minutes (1 intermission)
www.tift.ca