REVIEW
Blood: A Scientific Romance
The Maggie Tree
Runs until Oct. 27
Backstage Theatre
10330 – 84 Ave.
Tickets: $25. Call 780-409-1919 or visit www.tickets.fringetheatre.ca
There is something terrifying, repugnant and completely mesmerizing about The Maggie Tree’s production of Blood: A Scientific Romance.
This is the only production in recent memory where I had to prevent myself from screaming, “No, stop. Stop the sadistic abuse.”
At the heart of this 90-minute tragedy playing at Backstage Theatre until Oct. 27 are two fraternal twin sisters orphaned at age seven in a horrific car crash.
Poubelle (Gianna Vacirca) is the adventurous rebel defying rules and suffering the consequences. Angelique (Jayce Mckenzie) instead is a follower discovering an increasingly defiant streak.
Playwright Meg Braem, herself a twin, uses the accident’s aftermath to explore the nature of love between twins and the unbreakable bond it forges.
In a car crash, the sisters miraculously survive deadly injuries that should have killed them. Dr. Glass (Liana Shannon), one of the hospital’s attending physicians, fascinated by the twins’ almost telepathic ability to communicate even while unconscious, adopts them.
Glass stops practising medicine, drops off the radar and moves to a house in the middle of nowhere to perform loosely termed scientific experiments on the girls.
Is she a Josef Mengele, the Nazi physician who performed inhuman experiments on Second World War prisoners? Director Brenley Charkow allows us to make up our own mind.
The girls, wearing identical washed-out dresses lead a solitary existence. They have no friends, no outings and the only books available are medical digests.
Unlike girls their age with celebrity posters plastered on walls and computers readily available, the girls live in a stark windowless bedroom without access to the outside world.
Their only salvation comes in the way of Dr. Max Street (Jenna Dykes-Busby), a mousy medical graduate who has read Dr. Glass’ papers. Street considers Glass a leader in her field of research and asks to work with her.
It is impossible not to keep watching this quartet of actresses. Their understanding of the characters and fluid chemistry in relaying the shocking events is truly hypnotizing.
Shannon’s Dr. Glass at first comes across as a cold, hard splintery academic who cares little about the psychological and emotional comfort of her girls. As the play progresses, Shannon gradually allows the doctor’s brittle exterior to shatter into an explosive climax.
Vacirca’s Poubelle is the wonderful antagonist, the strong sister who is manipulative yet fights against the girls’ treatment as lab rats and is cruelly punished for wanting to lead a normal life. Vacirca has created a compelling character that you root for from the get-go.
Mckenzie’s Angelique is the submissive sister, the one who gets away with things and in a sense controls the twin relationship. As an actress, Mckenzie is at her strongest during a lab experiment where Angelique is tortured needlessly while Poubelle is forced to watch.
And finally, Dykes-Busby as the timid, plant-loving Dr. Street disrupts the dynamics simply by her presence. Dykes-Busby is a triple threat performer, who easily commands the stage with a strong presence. But in this performance her strength dominates through reticence.
My only niggle is that the ending feels a tad forced. But that does not affect this incredible story and its daring theatricality.
