30 PEOPLE WATCHING by nisha ahuja and Amelia Sargisson (Subtle Vigilance Collective). At Aki Studio Theatre, Daniels Spectrum (585 Dundas East). Runs to November 8. $15-$20. 416-531-1402, subtlevigilance.com. See Continuing. Rating: NNN
We regularly hear and read about homicide, but what goes on in the mind of the murderer and the victim?
Inspired by the 1997 swarming and killing of South Asian-Canadian teen Reena Virk by her peers in Victoria, 30 People Watching gives audiences an insight into the thoughts and feelings of victim Rita (nisha ahuja) and Chelsea (Amelia Sargisson), one of those who attacked her. We see them both at the time of the murder and in the present day, Chelsea in jail and Rita as a spirit.
Working with director Mark Cassidy, the writer/performers offer some strong theatrical moments, not least the physical scenes devised with the help of movement coach Viv Moore, strikingly lit by Michelle Ramsay. The text, though, needs further work to give the show the power it could have.
The performers often directly confront the audience, which sits around the action, thus involving viewers in a way that suggests were complicit with the dozens of bystanders who witnessed the murder and did nothing. What would you do? Rita asks, while noting the racism behind the killing and the fact that shes now been dead longer than she was alive, and asking what she might have done if shed grown up.
The actors have fine chemistry, notably in a series of confrontations between the imprisoned Chelsea, whose physical and verbal anger is always close to the surface, and the thera-pist (ahuja) who tries to get her to think about and come to some understanding of what shes done. Sargisson has the shows finest scene, in which Chelsea recites a poem shes written about her twisted, complex feelings.
There are other gripping moments, including recollections of the murder that are gruesome but also strangely lyrical. Too often, though, especially near the end, theres a jarring feeling that were getting an authors message, as if were being taught a lesson rather than being allowed to discover things on our own.
The issues the play raises, unfortunately still with us, deserve further exploration.
