Phenomenal Loss!

Today I saw a One Act Play performed by the McMaster University School of the Arts in the Honours Performance Series.

LOSS, was written and directed by Stephanie Myers, Laura Pomeroy and Rebecca Zaretsky and was based on a short story from Hamilton author Jean Rae Baxter's collection A Twist of Malice.

The story, and the play explores a woman's loss of self as she suffers through divorce and breast cancer. It exposes a macabre side of femininity fraught with violent and fatal fantasies.

Wow. What a wonderful play -- a brilliant adaptation of an intense and disturbing story. The acting was great, the lighting, the sound, the set were all done nicely, and the overall effect was stunning. About the only thing I might have changed (not that I've done theatre in a long time), was I would have toned down the background mood music just a bit in a few scenes -- it seemed a touch too loud and occasionally drowned out the actors voices. The music by Andrew Loeb was perfectly fitting, though, for the play and the three actors (Michelle Urbano, Danny Shuster and Heidi Ludwick) worked wonderfully together. Certain scenes had me on the edge of my seat or almost in tears. Really well done.

The only down-side to this play was that it was only slated for 3 performances, and two (Friday March 16th at 12:30 PM and 8 PM) are already past. There's only one more performance left, Saturday March 17th at 8 PM, and then it's over. Sigh. But I'm at least glad I was able to see this remarkable show.