Created by Murph Hickey and Nicholas Maillet
Produced by Windland Co. | Ottawa, ON
Review by Mer Weinhold
45-50 mins / 14+ / Comedy, Drama, Physical Theatre, Poetry, Storytelling
Fringe is the world premiere of Dead Siblings Society, which is one of the most emotionally raw and also emotionally complete plays I can recall ever seeing. This isn’t a carefully edited story of loss at the distance of many years; it’s an honest outpouring of intermingled love and grief, and all the more powerful for that. I wouldn’t hesitate to call this a must-see show of 2025.
The play opens with two unnamed characters meeting at a support group for people whose siblings have died. They talk about the unique experience of grieving a sibling relationship—a grief that society doesn’t provide many relatable examples for—and reminisce about their deceased siblings, in a series of flashbacks.
Murph Hickey and Nicholas Maillet are skilled, engaging actors who do a particularly spectacular job portraying siblings. They switch easily between characters, each taking on a variety of roles as they jump from memory to present day.
The staging is very effective, with only a few props managing to set a variety of scenes and orient the audience to different times and places. (I was particularly impressed at the versatile ways that a bed sheet and a notebook are used.)
Banner image for Dead Sibling Society. Photo provided.
Despite the somber themes, this is also quite a funny show, with plenty of (often grim) jokes and some delightful physical comedy moments.
I’ve never seen sibling relationships addressed in such depth and nuance. A sibling is: a friend, but not a peer; a family member with whom you’re on nearly equal footing in the household, although older siblings are still granted more authority; someone you love and nurture or are nurtured by, but also fight with, tease, and compete with.
Every one of these complex dynamics is drawn out across various scenes of the main characters spending time with their siblings, from birth to childhood to adolescence to adulthood, in an incredibly rich exploration of who siblings are to each other and how strong that relationship can be.
Dead Sibling Society is playing at La Nouvelle Scène, Studio B from June 14–22. Tickets are $14 plus service fees at the Fringe box office (3rd floor, Arts Court, 2 Daly Avenue), and at the two satellite box offices (LabO in the Ottawa Art Gallery and La Nouvelle Scène). Five and ten Show Passes are also available. Visit the Ottawa Fringe Festival’s website for the show’s schedule and check out their online schedule here.
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