Erin Shields’ To a Flame opened at the Nancy and Ed Jackman Performance Centre on Friday evening. It’s a co-production of 1s1 Theatre and Nightwood Theatre directed by Josette Bushell-Mingo and it’s designed for Deaf and hearing audiences; the dialogue being in English and ASL. I had pretty mixed feelings about it. It’s brimming with ideas and invention, it’s busy, there’s loads of action and visual interest but in the final analysis it just doesn’t seem to come together or have anything terribly original to say. I have to say some of my previous experience with Erin Shields’ work has felt that way as well.

To a Flame is set in the ancestral home of “Father”; a character we never actually meet. The house is sinister with odd noises, swarms of moths etc. It’s classic Gothic horror. The inhabitants consist of Father’s three female wards; each of whom is “afflicted” by what 19th century medicine considered a degenerate pathology. One is deaf, one is Black and one is a compulsive masturbator.

Each woman has a family history; the Deaf woman (played by Dawn Jani Birley) had a mother who was confined to an asylum, the Black woman (Nickeshia Garrick) is a descendant oof slaves and the third (Juliana Monk) had a mother who was a prostitute. The implication, of course, is that their pathologies are hereditary. The woman tell their stories in an intertwined sequence of scenes involving lots of action; running around, jumping over and under tables etc while a live cellist (Beth Silver) plays and constantly changing and rather impressive projections; by Laura Warren with assistance from MacKenzie Cornfield, provide a backdrop. Add in vivid lighting (André du Toit) and often striking sound design (Deanna H. Choi and Jenna Geen) and the narrative gets a bit lost in the sensory overload (rather like Shields’ Medusa)

Then it gets a bit more Gothic still as the Black girl narrates how she assisted Father in ther vivisection of the oversexed girl and then how, in turn, she extracted and examined his organs before burying him alive. Obviously it’s satire on the Victorian notion that psychological conditions have their causes in easily identified physical pathologies and I guess burying Father alive is striking back at the Patriarchy but that’s a bit too obvious to be satisfying; for me at least. So is the textbook Gothic ending.

So despite some rather good physical acting, lots of visual and aural interest and an intriguing premise To a Flame just didn’t add up to a fully coherent or satisfying theatrical experience for me. I suspect though that if you loved Medusa you’ll likely love it.

To a Flame runs at the Jackman Centre until October 4th.

Photo credit: Elana Emer