Fairy Tale With A Twist: The Flood Thereafter, Talisman Theatre

One should never miss seeing a Talisman Theatre show, if only for the sheer visceral experience that comes from sitting in the theatre. The Flood Thereafter, their latest contribution to the independent season, is another joyously theatrical production that revels in the collaborative nature of the theatre.

Director Emma Tibaldo (also the Artistic Director of Playwrights Workshop Montreal) has encouraged her designers to seize the show by the throat and the result is a gorgeous marriage of scenery, lighting and costume design that is not often seen.

In keeping with the company’s mandate, The Flood Thereafter is the English language premiere of a play by Quebecois playwright Sarah Berthiaume (“Le deluge après”). If you read the synopsis in the program, you’ll see that The Flood Thereafter is being called a “twisted fairytale”. But in spirit and influence it owes more to magic realism than anything by the Brothers Grimm. The scene is a small town whose population is living under a strange curse and only the arrival of the requisite mysterious stranger (Chimwemwe Miller) can help them recover all the things they’ve lost.

Tibaldo generally has managed to serve the story well, but she made one decision which threatens to derail the show right from the start. One of the conceits of the show is that the town’s only stripper (Amelia Sargisson) is so beautiful that her dancing makes men weep. This conceit sets the play’s general tone and establishes the play’s mythical world. Yet when Sargisson gets up to reveal her unique abilities, the moment is played as a farce. The stripper doesn’t dance: she merely tears off her clothes as if they were on fire. As for the men’s tears, they are parodies of sorrow, played without any emotional truth and backed up by a sound effect akin to a sitcom’s canned laughter. We do not believe in either their pain or in Sargisson’s powers and so, as an audience, we have trouble believing fully in the universe of the play.

For the most part, however, the show stays on track and manages to convey the reality of Berthiaume’s fragile and mysterious world. The play is reminiscent of a Shakespearian romance – those strange plays that exist somewhere between comedy and tragedy – and so it is appropriate that the text seesaws between heightened poetic language and rougher, more colloquial prose. As translated by Nadine Desrochers, the script reveals itself to be an enchanting text brimming with images that go right to the centre of the mind’s eye. (My personal favourite: “I have a fairy tale in my throat”).

The ensemble cast generally excels at every level, but if you only watch one person, keep your eyes on Felicia Schulman. This won’t be hard to do since she never leaves the stage. Playing a lonely housewife who lost her name years before, she manages to be both haunting and playful all at the same time. An arresting actress with years of experience on both Montreal’s stages and beyond, Schulman is always threatening to run away with the show but knows better than to ever actually do it.

The Flood Thereafter by Sarah Berthiaume. Translated by Nadine Desrochers. Playing at Theatre La Chapelle from October 15 – 23. For tickets call 514.843.7738 or visit the Talisman Theatre site.