LAC/ATHABASCA
Theatre Passe Muraille Mainspace (16 Ryerson)
Rating: NNN
Aug 9 at 9:45 pm, Aug 11 at 4:30 pm, Aug 13 at 7 pm, Aug 14 at 4:30 pm, Aug 15 at 9:45 pm. 1-888-328-8384, summerworks.ca.
Inspired by the 2013 Lac Mégantic rail disaster, writer/director Len Falkenstein’s jigsaw puzzle of a play traces moments in Canadian lives and history, starting from the Athabasca Glacier and moving eastward to the Fort McMurray oil sands and a tragic night in a small New Brunswick town.
Expertly played by Theatre Free Radical’s ensemble company, it’s most engaging in the last segment, which uses toy trains and buildings to recount the final catastrophe.
Some of the earlier moments, involving fur traders and arguing scientists, repeat points that we’ve already understood, but the nicely crafted and ultimately moving production stitches all the elements together by the end, which circles back to the crevasse-filled glacier where the show began.