“I may not be the best witness to my own story.” Hannah Moscovitch’s new play, Red Like Fruit, asks us to ponder this and more amidst a gut-wrenching tale of a journalist struggling with some of her darkest memories. Directed by Christian Barry, Red Like Fruit explores how societal expectations encourage us to see our own lives through a different lens, even if that’s not to our ultimate benefit. Starring Michelle Monteith and David Patrick Flemming, Red Like Fruit is an unforgettable experience.

Lauren has asked Luke to tell her story for her. Lauren is a journalist, and she’s tasked with investigating a scandal which has been years in the making but was hushed up by the government, as both individuals worked for the Liberal Party. As Lauren digs further into this story, she gets two very different accounts of what happened on the evening in question. In doing her interviews and research, memories of her own past surface: of being inappropriately touched on a tour in Prague, of her cousin coming into her bedroom at night and “teaching” her things, of older boys trying to lift her skirt as a young teen. Lauren’s life has been less than ideal, and yet she questions whether or not these events are just part of life, just things every young woman has to go through…aren’t they?

Moscovitch’s text puts “he said she said” on a whole other level. Firstly, Lauren has a man speak for her; a puzzling move, especially considering the intimate nature of what’s being discussed. But this is answered in the final moments of the play, where Lauren talks about how she wanted a “neutral voice” to tell her story aloud. What cuts deeper is when she said she also wanted a “believable” voice, implying that a woman’s voice, whether hers or otherwise, would be deemed unreliable. This is just one of the several instances in Red Like Fruit where society’s influence on Lauren is clearly observable. Like her insistence that these events are just another part of growing up, society has endowed many of us with the idea that “boys will be boys” and that these events which are clearly sexual assault are nothing more than a rite of passage. This gets reflected in the story that Lauren is reporting on as well, where the interviews with the various parties involved in the case yield drastically different narratives, making Lauren question what had actually happened and whose story (if anyone’s) tells the accurate version of events. Yet in her bearing witness to the potential truth of this story, she’s then forced to reckon with her own stories, and thus we get the set up of what the audience witnesses.

Michelle Monteith’s performance speaks volumes despite her predominant silence. Sitting on a chair atop a large platform, Monteith acts out the stories of her life being told, not in a miming way, however you can observe her body reliving the experience. Her few interjections reveal the façade she’s trying desperately to break through this process, and Monteith’s delivery is perfection. David Patrick Flemming does the heavy lifting with the text, garnering the perfect laughs and sympathetic reactions from the audience. Flemming brings a grounded and vulnerable feel to Luke which makes him the perfect teller of Lauren’s story. It’s fascinating to watch, as they’re essentially on the same journey, but running in parallel to one another; they’re experiencing this story in two very different ways, and the audience’s journey adds a third to the mix.

“You

You helped.

Thank you.”

This was like a gut punch – it took my breath away. How could I have been a help to this woman? Just by sitting here and listening to her story? YES! Red Like Fruit is about bearing witness to one another: about actively listening to the people you love and to helping them shoulder the burdens they carry. Lauren just needed to hear her story told aloud to help her make sense of it, to help make it feel real, and all we needed to do, was listen.

Red Like Fruit runs in the Michael Young Theatre at the Young Centre for the Performing Arts until June 15. For more information and tickets, visit: https://www.soulpepper.ca/performances/red-like-fruit

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Cover Photo: Michelle Monteith and David Patrick Flemming. Photo by Dahlia Katz.

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