On May 1st Darrah Teital’s award winning play Corpus had its opening night. Corpus was sold as a young scholar coming across a relationship that had happened in Nazi occupied Poland, and her investigation of that relationship leads her into a romantic one of her own.
The Holocaust is a tough subject to sell admittedly, and I’ll say I was very impressed how the playwright and director (Brownyn Steinberg) both tackled the subject matter and repackaged an old story into a new one. Teital is noted as saying “in order to address my childhood obsession with Holocaust fiction. I noticed that scholars were quickly replacing Holocaust History with Holocaust Revisionism, and new narratives were emerging that favoured the perspectives of perpetrators over victims.”
“What was the basis of my attraction to these stories? Is my interest good or exploitative? I was writing about the dangers of spinning Holocaust fiction, and simultaneously writing a piece of Holocaust fiction, myself.” This thought process is mirrored by the main character Megan, a scholar of Genocidal Studies. Megan stumbles across a relationship between a woman named Ava who is the wife of a Nazi officer in Auschwitz, and her Polish-teaching crematory worker. Ava’s grandson Heinrich finds Megan through her studies, and her investigation into Ava’s story leads to one of her own with Heinrich.
Teital tells an unconventional story of survival during the Holocaust. It examines the relationships between those trying to cope and survive in an unthinkably horrifying situation. This play will definitely make you think, and in a good way. Both plot lines have twists that examine human relationships at their core, and what people are willing to sacrifice for their own benefit.
Daniel Sadavoy plays a hilariously awkward and smooth admirer of Megan, and those uncomfortable with any of the subject matter will appreciate the fumbling advances between Sascha Cole’s Megan and Sadavoy’s Henrich. Eric Craig and Colleen Sutton play the complicated Polish crematory worker and Heinrich’s younger Grandmother, Ava. Their relationship is a constant power struggle and a roller coaster ride of emotions right until the end of the play.
Teital obviously plays off the fantastic acting of both Cole and Sadavoy, but it doesn’t work well with the seriousness of the rest of the story. My one criticism of the play is that it exaggerates a comedic relationship between Megan and Heinrich. Hands down Heinrich is my favorite character of the entire play, but coupled with Megan’s overblown modern neurosis the storyline can be slightly uncomfortable.
Steinberg made interesting use of the theatre space inside the Arts Court Theatre; the stage is in the centre of several rows of seats. This provides a length-wise stage that directs your attention left to right, and the audience can sit closer to the actors. The director also doesn’t just stop with her use of floor space either, and used projector screens to show the use of webcams throughout the play. This meant that people sitting side by side on stage were projected on opposite sides of the room, giving the audience a view of both what was happening inside and outside the frame of what the other character could see. The audience was able to bounce back and forth through time with the cast during their reminiscing plot line without having to wait for prop changes.
In the end, Corpus is worth attending for nothing either than the discussions it will bring with your friends. The exploratory nature of this play leads any mind through a barrage of possibilities when confronting ones mortality.
Corpus plays May 6-10 at 8pm, and May 7/10th at 2pm. You can find out more about the Counterpoint Players and Bronwyn Steinberg on their Facebook page, Check out the Indiegogo Campaign for Corpus here.
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