REVIEW: Vierge at Factory Theatre
iPhoto caption: Photo by Dahlia Katz
It’s not often #theaTO feels as cohesive as it has this season. Across theatres we’ve seen synergistic plays about animals; plays about classical music; plays about immigration.
One of the more compelling throughlines of the season has been that of religion — embracing it, rejecting it, manipulating it. Wielding vastly different points of view and authorial styles, this season’s playwrights have approached the power of organized religion head-on, building complex worlds around spirituality and its various presences in modern society.
Rachel Mutombo’s Vierge, in its thrilling world premiere at Factory Theatre, rips Christianity to its bones, hunting for any sign of its relevance to today’s youth. Director Natasha Mumba is more than up for the task of asking these difficult questions, sifting through teenagehood for any semblance of a religious foothold.
Set in a church basement, Vierge bears witness to the real-time effects of gossip on an otherwise close-knit church community. There’s a new pastor, we hear — the last one stepped down for murky reasons. His daughter, the confident and occasionally bratty Bien-Aimé (a radiant Kudakwashe Rutendo), is allegedly a homewrecker, but surely that can’t be true, since she’s happily involved with a boyfriend we never meet.
Then there’s the Katende sisters, Grace and Sarah, recent arrivals from the Democratic Republic of the Congo. They’re the same age, but not twins, and conspicuously prone to frequent spats about nothing. Grace came to Canada first, and while she goes to church, she’s more than willing to indulge in her adolescent sexual desires (she’s played by the very funny Yvonne Addai). Sarah, on the other hand, still struggles with the occasional English idiom (as Grace frequently reminds her), and as we get to know her, it seems that’s not all she’s grappling with (she’s brought to life in a subtle, shimmering performance by JD Leslie).
We get to know these queen bees of the church through the eyes of Divine, as pious as her name might suggest and prone to sporting any number of brightly coloured cardigans (in brilliant, cheeky costume design by Joyce Padua). Shauna Thompson has her work cut out for her — Divine is as likeable as she is prudish, with little to suggest anything by way of character flaws for much of the play’s exposition — but in Vierge’s final breath, Thompson gorgeously brings the dark side of Divine’s devotion to life, playing both edges of a teenage girl unexposed to the adult world lying beneath the surface of her church.
As Vierge develops, it quickly becomes clear this is no Mean Girls odyssey from clunky to cool for Divine — it’s much, much richer than that. While a passing knowledge of theology will enhance your enjoyment of the play (it’s no accident that Divine’s Bible study group group just can’t seem to get through the Book of Ruth), Mutombo has built a world compelling on its own merit, leaving the audience to engage with the religious signposts in the text as much or as little as they wish. Mutombo’s skill as a playwright is fiercely evident here, and she’s opted for a bold, divisive ending (or, well, non-ending — much of the play’s tension is left unresolved, an exciting and, to my eye, perfect choice for this play). Rachel Forbes’ set ably suggests the church basement location (though does at times create some sightline issues, particularly during scenes in the pastor’s cluttered office), and Jareth Li’s lights are inventive and fun, especially during an ill-fated church dance. Andrew Johnson’s nostalgic sound design equally suggests that high-school-dance atmosphere, rife with veritable bangers of the early 2010s.
Vierge is a brave and beautiful new play stuffed to the gills with talent and intrigue. It’s got all the charm of last year’s The Waltz and all the religious drama of Tarragon’s The Hooves Belonged to the Deer. Go.
Vierge runs at Factory Theatre through April 8–30, 2023.
Aisling Murphy
Aisling is Intermission's former senior editor and the theatre reporter for the Globe and Mail. She likes British playwright Sarah Kane, most songs by Taylor Swift, and her cats, Fig and June. She was a 2024 fellow at the National Critics Institute in Waterford, CT.
LEARN MORE
iPhoto caption: Adam Francis Proulx, Elm Reyes, Kay-Ann Ward in a Fringe promo photo by Joy Adeola.
REVIEWS: Toronto Fringe Festival 2025
This collection of Toronto Fringe Festival capsule reviews will be updated throughout the festival with writing from 20 different critics.
iPhoto caption: Masae Day, Landon Doak, and Michelle Fisk in 'The Wind Coming Over the Sea.' Photo by Lyon Smith.
REVIEW: A new Emma Donoghue musical takes root at the Blyth Festival
As a resident of southwestern Ontario, what struck me most is how deeply rooted in the region The Wind Coming Over the Sea feels. It's a lively reminder of the cultural inheritances that continue to shape the area today.
iPhoto caption: The cast of 'Major Barbara.' Photo by David Cooper.
REVIEW: Shaw Festival’s metatheatrical Major Barbara is sharp and subversive
Director Peter Hinton-Davis draws on a light smattering of Brechtian techniques — acknowledgements of artifice that enrich and vivify Major Barbara’s clash of morals.
iPhoto caption: The company of 'The Frogs.' Photo by Dahlia Katz.
Staged inches from the audience by director Griffin Hewitt, the show commendably captures the free-wheeling, anarchic spirit of the text. It’s a toad-ally great opportunity to see this rarity in the froggy flesh.
iPhoto caption: Jeff Lillico as Ralph with Yoshie Bancroft as Mitsue in 'Forgiveness.' Photo by David Hou.
REVIEW: Stratford Festival’s Forgiveness tells a deeply personal story on a sprawling scale
Presented in an increasingly tense political moment, Forgiveness resonates on a level that is part reflection, part warning.
iPhoto caption: Photo courtesy of Luminato Festival.
REVIEW: Is Tim Crouch’s An Oak Tree worth seeing twice at Luminato?
Crouch tests the limits of theatrical representation, improvisation, and authorship. While I’m usually a sucker for exactly those types of experiments, I ultimately found An Oak Tree a bit underwhelming.
iPhoto caption: Photo by Aisling Murphy.
In the darkest months of Yukon winter, it’s all about the Sun Room
I’m here for a week in January as a guest of Nakai Theatre, a hub for theatrical experimentation and outside-the-box programming in Canada’s westernmost territory.
Armchairs, tattoos, and an online theatre magazine
When I started at Intermission, my world was limited to the confines of an armchair. Arts journalism was a high it felt dangerously fruitless to chase. The life stretched ahead of me was amorphous and frightening, a chasm filled with hand sanitizer and immigration concerns. It was worth crying over a spilled kombucha and scrubbing at the stain.
iPhoto caption: Liz Appel headshot courtesy of Liz Appel.
Five questions with Wights playwright Liz Appel
Intermission spoke with Appel over email for a brief Q&A about Wights, now playing at Crow’s Theatre until February 9.
Call for applications: Publishing and editorial assistant
Intermission Magazine is seeking a dynamic and collaborative individual to join our team.
iPhoto caption: What Writing Can Do: The 2025 Musical Theatre Critics Lab
Announcing What Writing Can Do: The 2025 Musical Theatre Critics Lab
What Writing Can Do is timed to coincide with the Grand and Theatre Aquarius’ co-production of Waitress, which will serve as a jumping-off point for discussions throughout the Lab.
iPhoto caption: A Christmas Story production still by Dahlia Katz.
REVIEW: A Christmas Story feels fresh at Theatre Aquarius
If you want to catch A Christmas Story before it closes, good luck — the show is close to sold out, and with the talent on that stage, it’s not hard to see why.
Comments