IMPRINTS by Michael Spence, directed by Jacquie P.A. Thomas (Theatre Gargantua). At Factory Theatre Studio (125 Bathurst). To November 26, November 15 and Thursday-Saturday 8 pm. $20-$25. 416-504-9971. See listing. Rating: NNN
Fire in the blood has a whole new meaning in Michael Spence’s Imprints.
Despite some rough narrative edges, the Theatre Gargantua show, relying on the company’s trademark physicality and a cappella music, has a compelling visceral excitement.
Lily (Stephanie Belding), the central character, has an incurable genetic disease at the show’s start, she’s put into a state of suspended animation until a cure is found. She finds herself in a strange place with echoes of Alice In Wonderland, where she meets ancestral spirits who impart some less-than-happy information to her: there’s murder, treachery and a touch of incest in her past and in her genetic make-up.
Among those she meets are a vengeful figure called Than, a helpful trickster type named Had, mirror images of herself and a trio of tiny characters who might represent her id. The last are impulse-driven, tend toward infantile rhymes and give words diminutive endings (“looksies,” “chop off their headsies”).
Had is the warmest of the characters, resembling the Cheshire cat in Lewis Carroll Lily first sees him in a tree and he later appears in splintered form. Like many of the others, Had follows Wonderland logic and delights in word games. Spence makes him an engaging figure.
As the revenge-seeking Than, who seeks Lily’s death for the murder her ancestor brought to an entire village, Ron Kennell glowers menacingly at first and becomes sympathetic as we learn more of his story.
The ever-flowing production depends on Belding, onstage for most of the show. She literally throws herself into the work, and her physicality helps define Lily.
The plot is sometimes hard to follow, but maybe a story’s development in the psyche isn’t A-B-C in its structure.
If the story isn’t always clear, director Jacquie P.A. Thomas’s staging is striking, thanks in part to Cameron Davis’s projections and Laird Macdonald’s lighting. Had appears as if by magic we later see him as a projection on smoke. Lily seems to run great distances as a great black sheet alternately envelops and reveals her.
Imprints leaves an image, sometimes more by the visions we see than the words we hear.
