Although Iraq’s getting most of the attention lately, a different sort of conflict held the stage at Hart House Theatre last week. Judith Thompson’s award-winning play is an intense portrait of people grappling with the shadows of their past. Isobel (Clare Paterson) is the ghost of a murdered young girl who still lingers among the living, looking in on her neighbours to find someone who will take her “home.”
The play began even before the lights were dimmed. While the audience took their seats, Isobel sat on a swing on the stage, swinging back and forth at a slow, rhythmic pace. Accompanied by the eerie creaking of the swing, this prelude set the tone for the moody, sombre drama that followed.
For it turns out that most, if not all of Isobel’s neighbours have undergone some sort of trauma. There’s Sue, who is humiliated in front of her friends when her husband reveals that he has a mistress. Played by Inessa Frantowski, Sue launches into a drunken dance to try and win back her husband’s affection. Her clumsy moves and slurred come-ons are both humourous and disturbing—humourous, because she’s trying to look sexy in a sweatshirt, but disturbing, because we know just how desperate she is.
Dark humour is a recurring element in Lion in the Streets. In one scene, Joanne tells Rhonda she is dying of bone cancer. Joanne wants to kill herself, and asks Rhonda to help her find a heavy blue dress and flowers so she can drown herself like Ophelia in Hamlet. Rhonda counsels against the idea, saying the streams in Toronto are polluted, and “Besides, where are you going to find a blue dress like that?”
Every scene focuses on a different character, and within minutes there’s an emotional crisis, whether it be latent homosexuality or the memory of childhood sexual abuse. But despite the intensity of the script, the cast created characters that were accessible and believable. As Isobel, Paterson perfected a wide-eyed, nervous gaze that was both childlike and slightly terrifying.
It was particularly impressive that every actor beside Paterson played multiple roles. As Rhonda, Andrea Eve Wasserman was an unrefined, low-class daycare worker, but as Scarlett, she was a woman with cerebral palsy who nevertheless had a sharp tongue and aggressive sexuality. Her transition between the two roles could not have been more distinct and convincing.
At its core, the play is about confronting one’s demons and coming to terms with them. As Thompson put it, “We need to traverse the dark territory between terror and grace to find truth… and finally take ownership over our lives.” This theme becomes clear by the end of the play, when Isobel confronts her killer or the “lion” in the street. On behalf of her neighbours, she confronts their demons—a lost childhood, a failed marriage—and tames the lion.
