“Dear Guests: It is with great pleasure that Leyla and Joel invite you to celebrate their marriage this March. Dress code – informal, ceremony begins at 7:30 p.m., followed by the exchange of vows. And at our signal, the entertainment begins.”

Everyone loves a wedding; it’s a wonderful reason to join two people, and their families, while being surrounded by loved ones. It’s also a really good front for an illicit theatrical production. Sam Holcroft’s A Mirror, directed by Tamara Vuckovic, thrusts its audience into an Orwellian cultural hellscape where everything is censored by a ministry and your wedding vows aren’t even to each other, they’re to “the motherland.” A truly immersive experience full of heart-stopping moments, A Mirror is the wildest wedding you’ll ever attend.

A Mirror begins the moment you walk into 918 Bathurst – even as they check you in, you can tell that something is off. When you enter the main hall, Nick Blais has created a stunning wedding backdrop in the space with a white aisle, drapery hanging from the ceiling, and gorgeous spherical lighting features. There’s even a guest book just inside the door (don’t forget to sign it!) and signage framed with flowers. When you arrive at your seat there’s a wedding program, too. But like A Mirror itself, there’s a far more sinister side than what first meets the eye.

A cellist sits just off centre of the stage, playing baroque renditions of modern songs as the guests file in. Suddenly, the officiant, groom and best man emerge, as the songs shift to a more dark tone. The bride makes her way down the aisle and just as they finish the strangest set of vows you’ll hear, a man stands up from in the audience. He leaves abruptly, then the actual play begins. We find out that we’re all there to bear witness to a dramatic performance, not a wedding – the ceremony is merely a cover for their true intentions. What follows is a deep dive into the world these characters inhabit: one of suppression and restriction, of compulsory military enrolment and police surveillance. They tell an emotional story of the life of a mechanic-turned-playwright, Adem, and his journey through the bureaucracy of The Ministry of Culture. Full of twists and turns, A Mirror doesn’t let you settle in for very long before another layer in this nesting doll of stories is revealed.

This show scared me to my core – it becomes less and less difficult every day to imagine a world like the ones these characters are living in. With banned books growing in numbers and social media limiting what we can and cannot share, particularly when it comes to news, what was once a dystopian fear inches closer to reality by the minute. We know what it feels like to lose live art; we went through it six years ago today. A Mirror shows another pathway to losing art: through making it propaganda and not free expression. Though whether or not what Adem writes can be considered free expression is another brilliant issue this play raises: do we want to see reality on stage? Celik says no, that we want to be transported. But do we really want to be transported into a world of patriotism and heroic messaging? Are we not being more creative by telling our own stories as they truly happened?

Paul Smith helms this impressive cast as Adem; he gives the role an earnestness which made me immediately sympathize with him. Jonelle Gunderson’s Mei is initially quiet and reserved, but I loved watching her character blossom through the magic of theatre. Craig Lauzon’s Bax is hilarious; the stereotypical drunk, washed-up writer, Lauzon gives the role such vivacity and spark. Nabil Traboulsi’s Celik is a bit over-the-top, but I think he’s meant to be. At one point a seemingly well-intentioned character turned intriguing villain, Traboulsi’s able to navigate it all. Rita Dottor, Cole Munden, and Courtenay Stevens make their greatest impact at the end of the show, leaving a lasting impression and my hands shaking.

I wasn’t sure what to expect from A Mirror; I knew it was twisty and surprising, but I had no idea how much so. The themes of art and culture and how easily those things are blotted out of existence are going to leave me thinking about this play for a long time. In some ways, we live in the world that the speculative fiction writers were dreading, but A Mirror asks us what we’re going to do about it: play along or fight to make our art by any means necessary?

A Mirror runs at 918 Bathurst until March 28. For more information and tickets, visit: https://arcstage.com/happening-next/a-mirror/

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Cover Photo: Jonelle Gunderson, Nabil Traboulsi, Paul Smith in A Mirror. Photo by Kendra Epik.

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