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| Photo © Helena Vallès |
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| Photo © Helena Vallès |
The story is a common one: a single parent arrives in a city, in this case Montreal, and must start over while trying to protect her growing boy from the corrosive influences that abound in urban landscapes.
The award winning actress Julie Tamiko Manning plays the mom. Not surprisingly the performance is exquisite. Gabe Maharjan plays the ten year old son whose curiosity will get him into trouble. Together, in a sort of fantasy haze, they begin calling each other Ricki. The two characters are experiencing the trauma of displacement and this idiosyncrasy helps them cope.
A third character appears after the young boy goes to a dépanneur to buy milk played marvelously by Jon Lachlan Stewart. His performance is very moving as he represents a growing subculture of people ravaged by drugs, poverty and homelessness. We pass these human beings everyday, some are so mentally and physically damaged yet unable to help themselves. He sells drugs for money and attempts to corrupt the young boy. The fourth character is the monster that he also plays. Again, too many of us have encountered this monster that becomes erratic and physically abusive.
The screenwriter Joseph Shragge, who is also one of the artistic directors with Alison Darcy, expresses all these complex issues in a one hour metaphor that is pretty evident. The final question addressed is the tragedy of domestic violence that destroys so many lives.
I experienced the play with a sense of surprise, but it sinks in and it is so relevant to many current social issues. There are some humorous moments, like when we first see the monster, that's a good one.
For more information about the play visit this SITE.
For ticket information HERE.
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