These are dark times. Dickensian almost, and many of us are struggling with the knowledge that things are falling apart, and people all over this country and more so in the neighbouring country are just barely hanging on. This is the context for a gut wrenching one woman show about physical assault and it’s aftermath that is rather black on bleak.
Crash, written by Pamela Mala Sinha and directed by Krista Jackson, is excellent and every tiny scene works like the dots in a pointillist painting to bring you further into the story of pain and loss. My only difficulty in the entire non-linear structure, is a dearth of information of the move from Winnipeg to Montreal. My companion was confused about where most of the play took place.
Ghazal Azarbad gave a masterful performance and Krista Jackson worked flawlessly in her direction. The set was wonderful and its design by Eo Sharp was worth braving a cold night to reach. The levels served as an objective correlative of the layers the young heroine would be forced to climb to escape from the trauma and horror of her experience.
It is true that theatre companies plan their seasons many months before we get to experience them, so it is an accident of temperature, history, and the news cycle, that this bleak story should open in this blackest of months.
The only thing that might make this a better spectacle is some kind of crisis or denouement. The ending felt random and unresolved, but that may also have been intentional. Bravo to Imago Theatre for defying all emotional logic and going ahead with it.
Crash is playing from February 11 to February 22 at The Segal Centre for the Performing Arts. Tickets and info HERE.