Created by Annika Pavlin-Jamal
Produced by APJ Productions, Ottawa, ON
Review by Paul Goubko
45 mins / 14+
Annika Pavlin-Jamal’s Hesperus, Phosphorus! explores how the perspectives of a situation can differ between a noble-born countess and a Bolshevik bomb making servant-turned-lover. The two argue over how to handle a child they conceived out of wedlock and their future together amid World War One and the pending communist revolution.
Poster for Hesperus, Phosphorus! Photo provided.
An emotion-filled, pessimistic Polina, is a countess who has fallen on difficult times as she struggles with managing her pregnancy and future, following her father’s passing and falling out of favour with her fellow nobles. Her lover, Maksim, acts as a counterpoint and is a young idealist, seeing a brighter future for them with their newly discovered child.
Like German philospher Gottlob Frege, Pavlin-Jamal highlights how two people in the same situation can have such different perspectives while also highlighting the class struggle of the time through the lens of their relationship. The artists give an engaging performance that captures the characters’ emotions and their struggle to decide where to take their lives.
Hesperus, Phosphorus! is playing at Arts Court Theatre from June 12–21. Tickets are $14 plus service fees at the Fringe box office (3rd floor, Arts Court, 2 Daly Ave.), and at the three satellite box offices (LabO in the Ottawa Art Gallery, Fringe Courtyard, 67 Nicholas St 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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