Reviewing Marshlights Theatre Company new play, spoilers: Go watch it!
Content warning: This article contains mention of suicide.
At first glance, Late Company is a play about teenage suicide. It tells the story of two parents navigating grief over their 2SLGBTQIA+ son, Joel’s death. The play’s plot takes place over a single evening, where Joel’s parents, Joel’s bully, and the bully’s parents meet up for dinner. This is supposedly to help them all move forward after the tragedy. What actually ends up taking place is a night of passing the blame, as no one wants to fully take accountability for what happened. The play then invites the audience to ask themselves: Is there even any accountability to be had? This is a purposefully polarizing question. All the characters in the play seem to agree that what happened was a tragedy. However, their opinions differ drastically on what could have been done to avoid it, and what should be done in the future to prevent further incidents.
Originally written by Jordan Tannahill, Late Company is brought to Sackville by the Marshlight Theatre Company, directed by Jay Whitehead. It had its first run at Marshlight theatre on Feb. 27, Feb. 28, and March 1. However, it has a second run from March 6-8. Marshlight’s version of the production makes expert use of the theatre space to create an immersive and intimate setting. It depicts a living room, centered with a dinner table. The space positions the audience at the same level as the stage, creating a perspective as if we were in the room with the characters. In other words, the audience is forced into this voyeuristic position as they eavesdrop on this very delicate and tense conversation between the two families. It feels invasive in the best way.
Late Company makes excellent use of dialogue. Despite its dark themes, it manages to create many moments of levity, both giving the audience a break and making the sombre moments hit just that much harder. This is a play that does not shy away from humour, irony, and heavy-handed commentary. Characters often respond in dark moments with quick wit and humour. Given the topic of the play, you might think picking sides is easy but no character is portrayed as the voice of reason. The play discourages the audience from believing just one perspective. Instead, it uses humour to ensure the audience is paying attention to every line of dialogue. As a result, the characters feel real and fun. No character is painted as entirely good or entirely bad. It is a play where what is being said might be funny or absurd or infuriating. However, this is purposefully done to get the audience to not passively consume the play, but form their own opinions.
Late Company’s cast enhances its dynamic dialogue with their performances. We have Craig Farrish and Maya Noëlle as Bill and Tamara, parents of the bully Curtis, played by Malcolm Denby. At first, you are not quite sure of what to think of Curti’s parents. Are they going to advocate for their son’s heinous actions? Are they going to support the grieving parents? However, the show reaches a new level with acting performances by Andrew Ennals and Laura Stinson, who star as Joel’s parents, Michael and Debora. Both actors deliver outstanding performances that truly make you laugh and care about their situation. They do an amazing job at balancing the play’s sense of humour with their characters’ feelings and emotions towards the tragedy. Joel’s parents are people trying to do the right thing, trying to move on, trying to forgive; however, they still lost their son far too soon. The actors convey with impressive range all of the guilt, rage, and doubt in a way that feels natural and compelling.
Late Company is a play worth watching. It tackles themes of empathy, queerness, but more interestingly conformity. Joel’s parents ask if their son was bullied for being gay. Curtis responds that no, it was because he was weird. This prompts us to think: How ‘weird’ does someone have to be for us to turn a blind eye to cruelty? For us to justify in our heads that they had it coming. Should people compromise their ideals or self-expression for the sake of normativity and group cohesion? Late Company has a heartfelt and touching ending that deserves to be experienced in person. It is a play that carefully navigates a terrible, awful grey area where playing the blame game is lose-lose for all characters. It is unlikely you’ll have seen something like it before