For the second time in 48 hours, I’ve seen a show in which performers previously unknown to me have floored me with their talent. I encourage agents, directors, and everybody who loves good theatre to do their best to see both Rent and now The Animal Kingdom.
Glenn MacDonald’s set for The Animal Kingdom is simple: five chairs set up for family therapy.
In Ruby Thomas’s script, a young man named Sam is in a psychiatric facility from which he may or may not be released. For a long time, it’s not clear what it is exactly, but Sam has done something big — maybe violent. Shortly after I met his family, I hoped that maybe he’d tried to kill his mother — and that maybe he’d finish the job. Talking non-stop, intervening at every juncture to shut down other family members and impose her version of the narrative, Sam’s mom Rita is so annoying. But here’s thing: playwright Thomas gives Rita a subtly and credibly crafted character arc and, as Rita traversed it, as I got to know her, I released my flippancy, along with most of my annoyance, and it was replaced by compassion.
That’s when I remembered what I learned from my own years of group therapy: if you know enough about almost anybody, you’ll love them.
I wouldn’t have felt that tenderness for Rita, of course, if actor Advah Soudack hadn’t inhabited the character so thoroughly in this production, allowing me to see Rita’s interventions as desperate attempts to help and, finally, showing me the devastating stillness beneath the racket.
This production has been so impeccably cast by director Christy Webb that I feel similar appreciation for all five of its actors.
Playing the therapist, Daniel, Richard Meen is remarkably, simply present — an unflappable, empathetic facilitator, just like you hope real-life therapists will be. And I don’t think I’ve ever seen a more authentic performance than Lili Martin delivers as Sam’s younger sister, Sofia. There was no gap through which I could see daylight between the actor and the character.
There’s a scene between Sam (Mozi Mayaleh) and his father, Tim (Abraham Asto) that demolished me. When we first meet him, Sam is barely willing to speak. Tim is a man of few words and an explosive temper. There’s a truism in storytelling: the more a character tries to suppress a feeling, the more moving it is when that feeling insists on being seen.
Of all the characters, Sam must inhabit the largest expanse of emotional territory. It’s a gift to watch Mayaleh negotiate it: the extreme containment, the easy bonhomie, the rage.
Mark Carter’s lighting supports the shifts in focus. Keith A. Parent’s costumes and their variations feel wholly natural and appropriate as they follow the characters through six weekly sessions. And, in May Goddard’s sound design, each of those sessions is preceded by the conversational sounds of animals and birds — maybe insects. Are these the inner voices, the “menagerie” that Sam hopes will be silenced? Or are these creatures reminding us that we’re embodied, social, and that, as Sam, who has studied zoology believes, living things deserve respect?
I had no idea what to expect when I entered the theatre to spend time with The Animal Kingdom. Thanks to playwright Thomas, director Webb, and her team, I don’t have a thing to complain about. All I have is gratitude.
THE ANIMAL KINGDOM by Ruby Thomas. Directed by Christy Webb for Christy Webb Productions. A Metro Theare production. In the Vancity Culture Lab at The Cultch until September 20. Tickets
PHOTO CREDIT: (Photo of Advah Soudack and Mozi Mayaleh by Vickie Legere)
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