Left to Right; Kosta Lemermeyer as Today; Brenda Robins as Miss (photo credit: David Cooper)

I attended opening night of the Belfry’s opening show of their 2024-2025 season. The play is titled From Alaska and is written by Quebecois playwright Sébastien Harrisson. It is a two-hander, with Brenda Robins as Miss and Kosta Lemermeyer as Today. The play begins with Today breaking in to Miss’s home, although it is unclear why he does this. They build a relationship over time, and end up as companions and friends. We find out that Miss’s partner Maggie has left for a trip to Alaska and is not coming back. Miss is very hurt by this, as they have been together for 30 years. Maggie does not come off as very sympathetic in the play, as abandoning your partner after 30 years is not an admirable act at all. Today ends up nursing Miss as she is unwell. The play features a lovely set design by Christina Poddubiuk, who also designed the costumes. The lighting is by Leigh Ann Vardy, with Tobin Stokes providing sound and Keith Houghton as projection designer. The play is directed by Michael Shamata, who does his usual effective job in building the relationship between this odd couple, brought together by circumstance. The Montreal Gazette describes the play as, “a play about coming to terms with identity, be it social, political, sexual…” and this seems to be an accurate snapshot of what the play intends. Today enters one scene wearing a dress, which is puzzling until we silently accept his/their experimentation with gender roles. The relationship between the two characters builds over time to become quite moving, especially as we witness the changing seasons, moving from summer to fall to winter. Water is a through line in the play, and we witness a storm that leads to the house being flooded. There are other water images projected on the upstage screen that reinforces this element of the play.

If I have one key criticism with the play, it is that it is opaque, the motivations of both characters are muddy and never made clear to the audience. Why does Today break into Miss’s home? What does he want? What does she want? None of these questions are answered by the end of this 90 minute play, which I’m supposing is the way the playwright chose to make it, as ambiguous, but frankly, this is frustrating for an audience that wants clarity. There are some poetic passages in the play that resonate well, and the ending is satisfying, but I did find the play to be somewhat precious in its writing and performances. Recommended with these caveats in mind. The show runs until October 13th with tickets at: https://www.belfry.bc.ca/event/from-alaska/