Pacamambo

Amy Keating and Karen Robinson in Pacamambo. Photo by Jeremy Mimnagh.

To kick off their inaugural season, Canadian Rep Theatre, led by former Factory Theatre artistic director Ken Gass, premiered the English language production of Quebec-based playwright Wajdi Mouawad's Pacamambo last night at The Citadel (304 Parliament Street).

Dark and light embrace in this bold story of a girl grappling with the death of her grandmother. We first meet the angry young Julie (Amy Keating) in confrontation with her psychiatrist (Karen Robinson) as she reluctantly tells the story of how she was discovered in the basement of her grandmother's apartment building lying beside the elderly woman's decomposing corpse. She had been missing for 19 days.

The psychaiatrist listens as Julie recounts a fanciful, and horrifying account of how she and her dog Growl (Michelle Polak) witnessed the Moon (also portrayed by Polak) take her grandmother away in the middle of the night. Inspired by her grandmother's bedtime stories about journeying to the idyllic land of Pacamambo, where "everybody is everbody else," Julie goes searching for answers. She drags Marie Marie's body down to the basement, where she is determined to wait until death arrives so she can give "him" a piece of her mind. But as death approaches, Julie begins to realize that no amount of perfume or makeup can bring her grandmother back to life.

Staged with the audience on either side of a white platform, Marian Wihak's minimalist set design makes effective use of the intimate space, with a door separating the grotesque room of death from the outside world. The production also features magical lighting design by Rebecca Picherack and haunting original music and sound design by Wayne Kelso, contributing to the play's otherworldly spirit.

Ken Gass gets strong performances out of the four cast members: Robinson is engaging as the concerned and frustrated psychiatrist; Polak is endearing and convincingly canine as Growl, Harper is terrific in the role of the helplessly dead Marie Marie, and Keating carries the show as the charismatic, vulnerable and emotionally explosive Julie.

As a show written for young audiences but certainly grown up enough for adults, Mouawad's Pacamambo approaches death head on via fiction that will speak to people of all ages. The play's message of loving and living through loss is profound and ultimately something worth celebrating. A sign of good things to come from the new theatre company.

Pacamambo runs until February 2 at The Citadel (304 Parliament Street). Visit canadianrep.wordpress.com for more information and to buy tickets.