The monsters within us
The Monster Trilogy brings them to life
BRENT NEILL
PHOTO: COURTESY OF THEATRE PROJECTS MANITOBA
Director Ardith Boxall stages the play on a stark set that is dominated by three video-projection screens and is surrounded by metal poles that literally imprison the actors. The production begins with atmospheric music and the shocking sound of a car sinking in the water as two children scream for their lives. From there we are quickly introduced to a sunny Susan Smith, the real-life murderer of her young sons. Played by Sarah Constible, Smith is a cheery mother in the midst of recording a video diary to “Ms. Oprah” in hopes of correcting misconceptions about her crime.
Vaughan’s subtle script and Constible’s nimble performance twist Smith into an almost endearing character, who humourously gives her version of why she had to kill her children and is trying to be understood by the media that have condemned her. The audience almost comes to pity the pathetic and selfdeluding Smith; until, that is, Boxall forces us and Smith to confront her monstrous act by once again playing the creepy sound of her car slipping slowly beneath the surface of the water, until the crying voices inside are drowned out.
The next monster to introduce herself is Constable Margaret Chance, played in a standout, grotesquely hilarious and disturbing performance, by a buzz-cutted and very butch Michelle Boulet, costumed in a Winnipeg Police Service uniform. Boulet presents a monologue in which she reveals herself to be a racist, homophobic, sexist, politically incorrect redneck cop, opining on a range of subjects, from immigration to her husband’s aversion to oral sex and her growing fear of the potential horror within her own family. Boxall and Boulet walk a fine line in creating a sense of awkward humor that leaves the audience unsettled and wondering if they should laugh at Chance’s offensive views, or be horrified that they can even find such outrageous dialogue amusing.
The concluding piece of the play concerns a Reverend, portrayed by Carolyn Gray, who defends her twisted spiritual obsession with the funerals of teenagers killed in violent ways. The Reverend’s own violent desires seep through in her justification of why she feels such an addiction to seeing dead children laid to rest. Carolyn Gary gives the most layered and nuanced performance of the night, creating a detailed character who slowly reveals to the audience the levels of her irrational delusion and desperate desires. By the end of her chilling monologue, Gray confirms that the worst monsters are the ones that we keep locked inside ourselves.
Boxall, also the artistic director of Theatre Projects, has selected a well-written play that gives three of Winnipeg’s top female actors the material to really shine and challenge audiences. The lighting, sound and production design all compliment Boxall’s confident blocking that puts the emphasis not on showy staging, but on Vaughan’s words and her actors’ abilities to create monsters in their characters, monsters that both compel and repulse the audience.
