The Unnatural Disaster Theatre Company’s production of Robyn Vivian’s play Deeper, directed by Logan Robins, closes tomorrow, April 28th, 2024 at 5:00pm at the Bus Stop Theatre as part of OutFest. It tells the story of Lisa, played by Sarah Smith, who falls immediately in love with Emily, played by Ellie Weise, and a harrowing decade-long saga ensues, which causes Lisa a lot of heartache and emotional turmoil.
The play is set mostly in St. John’s, Newfoundland in the late 1980s and throughout the entirety of the 1990s, and the water is a major theme of the show. Robins has anchored the play quite literally underwater, with a lot of fog giving it the murky feeling of being in the depths, a metaphor for the depths, often, of Lisa’s despair. There are rocks scattered all over the stage that sometimes double as pillows, and ropes that allow Lisa and Emily to communicate with one another via letter when Emily moves to Alberta, swinging them back and forth to each other in a very whimsical effect.
I love that the play is set in St. John’s, I found the undersea metaphor very interesting, I like the idea that the story is set in the past, and that it focuses on a love that is unspoken and perhaps unrequited. I like the idea of exploring how having a sort of nagging crush on someone can persist over years, and what effect that can have on someone’s life.
Dramaturgically, Vivian is doing two very difficult things in this play: it’s hard to capture over a decade’s worth of action in one hour, and it is difficult, although obviously not impossible, to structure a play so much around two characters’ disparate letter narratives without giving the audience as much of the dramatic relationship between the two in dialogue. Lisa’s story is told entirely in relation to Emily, over ten years, we don’t really learn anything else about her except for the fact that she is love with someone who might never reciprocate those feelings. I was curious about what else Lisa was doing in her life while Emily was in Alberta; how was she growing and changing from a university student into a woman in her early thirties, and how was her love for Emily growing and changing with her? There is also even more that Vivian could explore in the context in which she has set this play. What happens when Emily and Lisa kiss in public in Calgary in 1995? What governmental and legal barriers would Lisa have encountered in 1999 as she attempts to manage bureaucratic affairs on behalf of Emily?
Vivian mentions briefly that Lisa and Emily’s ex husband Dave, played by Robins, end up living together as they both seek to rebuild their lives after a shared traumatic event and that Lisa suffers from addition during this time. I think this dynamic is fascinating and I wondered if maybe that was the play?
As a director Logan Robins’ vision is a strong one. There is room for him to be a bit clearer in his use of the duality of space regarding where we are in the real world. If you’re in someone’s house, for example, especially if you’ve just arrived out of the blue, where are you going if you get up and walk across the stage from them? Are you going to a kitchen to get something to drink? Where is Lisa living? Is wherever she lives as a single person big enough for Emily to do so and still be seen and heard? All of these choices help to ground the story in the specific instead of the general.
This play is part of OutFest’s Emerging Stage, for works earlier in their development. There is so much, ten years worth, of story here; Vivian has so many options for the ways in which she might want to keep honing this play in the future. I think the story will benefit from her trying to find more ways to put the characters in dialogue with one another (and this still can be through the letters) that captures the ways that their dynamic is growing and changing as the years go by, and perhaps bringing Dave into the narrative in an even more central way.
I look forward to seeing the next iteration!
The Unnatural Disaster Theatre Company’s production of Deeper plays at The Bus Stop Theatre (2203 Gottingen Street, Halifax) as part of OutFest at the following times:
April 28th, 2024 at 5:00pm.
The show is 60 minutes. Tickets are $16.50 and available here.
Content Warning: Reference to substance use/addiction, sexual content, and death. Some strong language and homophobia. For questions about specific content please reach out.
The Bus Stop Theatre is located at 2203 Gottingen Street and is wheelchair accessible with gender-neutral washrooms.
