In a recent video interview with The New York Times, playwright Christopher Shinn described personalizing the violence of September 11th as a method of processing and understanding it in his own terms. His Pulitzer Prize-nominated Dying City–first performed in 2006 at London’s Royal Court theatre–is a kind of Gestalt dramatization of that idea, nimbly summoning personal carnage as a way of examining large-scale violence and vice-versa. And now, Surface/underground‘s modest production at the Toronto Free Gallery brings a creeping intimacy to Shinn’s work, director Peter Pasyk patiently drawing out that inner cruelty like venom from a wound. Shinn takes his audience to the apartment of Kelly (Lesley Faulker), whose husband Craig died serving in Iraq under obscure conditions. A former therapist, she spends her days in a depressive haze, her nights watching Law & Order alone in their Manhattan apartment. One year after Craig’s funeral, his identical twin brother Peter (Sergio Di Zio), an actor, walks off a production of A Long Day’s Journey Into Night after one of his co-stars stage whispers that he’ll never be a great actor so long as he’s gay–although phrased much less delicately. It’s clear that Peter is the star of his own life, and he descends into his former sister-in-law’s stark apartment with the swagger of an actor who delights in every opportunity to hone his craft. The fulcrum of this ingeniously composed little play is Craig–who, while absent in the present, is alive in Kelly’s memory, stoked as it is by Peter’s surprise appearance. A bit of theatrical sleight-of-hand (and a doorway) allows Di Zio to play both brothers, each in a different time. It worked for Polkaroo, and in Shinn’s clever two-and-a-half-hander, it becomes a sly exploration of identity politics and the hounding force of memory. The dialogue is deceptively casual; it’s light-sounding, but loaded with meaning from beat-to-beat. Di Zio gives a highly watchable, sensitive performance, but his handle on both roles falters a little bit, particularly as he shifts from one to the other. While Di Zio’s Craig has a more obvious, combative intensity, his Peter defers too easily to dopey charm, suggesting little of the darkness that Peter shares with his dead brother. His mission to Kelly’s apartment is one of stealth warfare, not friendship, the psychological blow he eventually deals is muted by Di Zio’s ingenuousness. Lesley Faulkner’s Kelly is, at times, devastating. As Peter callously reads his brother’s emails aloud to her, perched on the couch with a silver lamp burning over his shoulder, her earlier chilliness and low-key handle on the situation dissolves into chaos. Questions that have been growing acrid inside of her for the past year spill out, Faulkner’s voice and body becoming veritable instruments of hatred and grief. It’s a scene where every element of this remarkable play and production coheres entirely, Kelly’s desire to understand her husband’s soul becomes agonizingly palpable. You can feel it in your chest. If only the Toronto Free Gallery was a space better suited to the production. The sightlines and general proportions of the space ask a lot of its audience, making the work of the performers that much more difficult to absorb when you’re constantly having to peer between heads. But that complaint is minor compared to the thrill of this small but ambitious production. Dying City. By Christopher Shinn; directed by Peter Pasyk; set and lighting design by Patrick Lavender; sound by Scott LeBlanc; stage manager, Ivory Seol; presented by surface/underground theatre and Elisa’s Boy. At Toronto Free Gallery. Through December 17. Running time: 80 minutes. With: Lesley Faulkner (Kelly) and Sergio Di Zio (Peter/Craig). Naomi Skwarna is Toronto Standard’s theatre critic. Follow her on Twitter: @awomanskwarned.
