DIRTY BUTTERFLY by Debbie Tucker Green, directed by Jack Grinhaus, with Kaleb Alexander, Beryl Bain and Lauren Brotman (Bound to Create/Obsidian). At Aki Studio Theatre, Daniels Spectrum (585 Dundas East). Previews Thursday (October 31), opens Friday (November 1) and runs to November 17, Tuesday-Saturday 8 pm, matinee Sunday 2 pm. $20-$25, preview $15, November 10 pwyc. 1-800-204-0855. See listing.
Incidents of domestic abuse are on the rise. In response to the stark statistics, Bound To Create Theatre is reviving its strong production of dirty butterfly, a hit at the 2012 Fringe.
What’s fascinating about the play is how it brings race into the discussion and also looks at the collateral damage of abuse.
Written by Jamaican-British playwright Debbie Tucker Green, the script examines the situation of three people living in a London tenement. Jo, a white woman, lives between two black neighbors, Jason and Amelia. Jason has taken to listen voyeuristically to the beatings by Jo’s unseen husband, while Amelia blocks out as much as she can of what she overhears, moving out of her bedroom, which shares a wall with Jo’s, and sleeping on her living-room sofa.
“Our company is drawn to plays that deal with issues,” explains director Jack Grinhaus, who’s helmed Saved and The Project: A Toronto Tale for the company. “When we presented dirty butterfly at the Fringe, an audience member said she understood it perfectly, because she was forced to listen to her landlord abusing his wife. Fearful of eviction, she didn’t know what to do and felt guilty about not acting.
“Green’s script is a challenge to work on, with its fast-paced, overlapping dialogue and intense poetry. It’s also hard to take in because it’s so unforgiving. It has something of the brutality of Sarah Kane’s work (Blasted, 4.48 Psychosis), but Green’s added a surprising poetry. This time around, we’re finding a touch of humour here and there. In the Fringe version, we went for the guts, blood and bone of the piece, but the audience needs moments of release along the way.”
In the current staging, there’s a new actor playing Amelia, Beryl Bain, who the director thinks will change the production’s chemistry.
“Beryl brings an incredible vulnerability to the part. That forces the other two actors in different directions than previously, and even if people have seen the Fringe production, they’ve have a different reaction to the show now.”
The play starts in the middle of the emotional action, with Amelia and Jason forced into Jo’s world of violence.
“What we see are two real responses, not what people think they’d do in the circumstances. Amelia ignores what’s happening to Jo, hating her neighbour for what she’s putting Amelia through her guilt has taken her to a place of disgust and avoidance.
“Literally on the other side, Jason has become an obsessive eavesdropper who hasn’t left his bedroom in days. He has his own guilt, not saying or doing anything because he’s paralyzed in different ways. It’s as human a response as Amelia’s.”
Surprisingly, Jo has a kind of manipulative power in this world, which Grinhaus says can make the audience dislike her at times.
“We become complicit in what’s happening to her, and at times deflect the reality of what’s happening to Jo. That’s the real genius in the writing: that Green can make us feel as guilty as Amelia and Jason.”
For the current staging, Bound to Create has a partner in Obsidian Theatre. Grinhaus had invited Obsidian’s artistic director Philip Akin into observe rehearsals in 2012 Akin admitted he’d been trying to find a way to bring Green’s work to Toronto.
“Obsidian has a long tradition of mentorship,” notes Grinhaus, who spent last year as associate/apprentice artistic director at the Grand Theatre in London, Ontario. “This year they’ve started a new program called the Presentation Series, and dirty butterfly is its first production.”
Grinhaus sees this staging as “a re-envisioning” of the script, clearer than the Fringe production was able to be.
“I think the play succeeds in part because it’s neither didactic nor a protest. While there’s no overt violence shown onstage, it can’t help but put something uncomfortable in the pit of your stomach.”
