Wellington Oracle

photo: (L-R) John Koensgen, Kris Joseph and Sam Kalilieh star in "Facts" by Arthur Milner; directed by Patrick MacDonald. Costumes designed by Sarah Waghorn. Set and lighting design by Martin Conboy; with associate set designer, Yvan Cazabon. Photo by Steve Boyton of Paul Toogood Photography.

Theatre Review by Sterling Lynch

Arthur Milner’s latest play, Facts, begins as an engaging, intelligent, and character-driven murder mystery. Then, it jumps its narrative rails and careens into a sudden and unresolved ending. Watching this Great Canadian Theatre Company / New Theatre of Ottawa co-production is seventy minutes well-spent but the script probably needs seventy more minutes to finish the engaging journey Milner starts but does not finish.

In the early-going, Facts isn’t a play about the West Bank, even if it happens to be set in the West Bank. Instead, Milner expertly reveals to us what West Bank life is like, by letting us watch an Israeli detective and a Palestinian inspector discuss the unsolved murder of an American archaeologist.

The dialogue between Yossi HaCohen (John Koensgen) and Khalid Yassin (Sam Kalilieh) is fast, intelligent, and surprisingly funny. The characters are believable and the mystery is engaging and illuminating. Kalilieh, in particular, is excellent, giving a confident, nuanced, and engaging performance. Director Patrick McDonald uses a fine set to good effect. We’re very pleased to be the fly on this wall.

Then, by my eye and ear, when Danny (Kris Joseph), a Jewish settler arrives for interrogation, the script jumps its narrative rails. Suddenly, instead of a murder mystery, we’re watching a play that is very much about the conflict between secular and religious Zionists.

And as Yossi’s hatred for religious Zionists gets the better of him, the production team seems to pick a side. Danny comes across as inhuman and pernicious, Yossi becomes a thug, and Khalid seems almost angelic in comparison.

Whatever the production team’s opinion of West Bank politics may be, dramatically-speaking, once Danny is cast as the evil guy, Yossi as the well-intentioned bad guy, and Khalid as the innocent bystander, the events on stage become less engaging.

From there, the script careens headlong into an abrupt ending, without any clear resolution. Yossi shoots, changes his world forever and, for some reason, Milner prefers not to explore the consequences of this act. Instead, he gives us an ending that reduces the complicated politics of the West Bank to a cold-blooded execution in an interrogation room.

Meanwhile, upstairs at the Fritizi Gallery, The Cube’s Don Monet has curated an exhibit that, I think, directly and effectively dialogues with the events depicted on the main stage. Mark Seabrook’s vibrant acrylics on canvas are deeply informed by his personal history, which is filed with horror stories simply because he’s an Ojibwe living in Canada.

Because of this exhibit, I can’t help but wonder if the Canadian obsession with the ravages of colonialism overseas isn’t anything more than an excuse not to engage with our own devastating colonial legacy here at home. Our checkpoints and security walls are less apparent but they’re as obstructing and as devastating as anything on the West Bank.

I for one think we will only learn how to address this devastation — both here and abroad — when we possess the fortitude to investigate fully the consequences of our actions and of those who have come before us. I have to believe this because the only alternative to the story I imagine always seems to end with a gunshot and wordless indifference.

GCTC’s “Facts” by Arthur Milner is playing the mainstage of the Irving Greenberg Theatre Centre through May 2; for tickets and showtimes call 613 236 5196