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>> The Mystery of Maddy Heisler is a theatrical mash-up; d’bi.young.anitafrika brings a Kingston shantytown to life in blood[claat].

by NEIL BOYCE

New Artistic Director Roy Surette looks intent on making a splash in his directorial debut at Centaur Theatre, and in tackling Maritime playwright Daniel Lillford’s The Mystery of Maddy Heisler, no idea, it seems, was rejected. The already busy story has a movie-of-the-week feel, a mash-up of lost love, murder mystery and ghost tale with flashbacks to World War II in a rural, folksy setting (but no Busby Berkeley dance numbers, alas).

Kent Allen plays Jacob Meisner, a failing Nova Scotian mystery novelist stewing over his latest setback when reminders of a teenage affair with an older woman begin to pop up. Maddy Heisler—whom he met as a soldier on the lookout for German U-boats—may have been a spy, and one night suddenly vanishes.

Meisner’s drawling fishing buddy Earle Murphy remarks, “Maddy had every man in town wrapped around her finger...Jacob wrapped more than most.”

We are cast forward and back in time as the fragmented story unfolds. The steeply raked, tilt-a-whirl stage with its cut-out pier looked fit to tip the cast into the drink at any moment. Meanwhile, actors tore on and off stage in all directions, props were whisked away or dropped like Groucho Marx’s duck, and rapid transitions timed with curious theme music gave the production a heavily cinematic look.

Patricia Summersett’s bright delivery in twin roles added needed sparkle to the proceedings, while Michael Chiasson as the elder Murphy was solid and wonderfully eccentric.

The pace picked up in the second act as the loose threads around Maddy’s disappearance began to be gathered. The desire to unlock the mystery peaked as Jacob’s past literally crept up and whacked him on the head.

What stays in the mind, however, are Earle’s prophetic words: “The best story ye’s ever had has never been told.”

Longtime Montrealer d’bi.young.anitafrika, now based in Toronto, has returned with a killer “one-ooman” show, blood[claat].

The Jamaican coming-of-age story centres on 15-year old Mudgu Sankofa, a schoolgirl in a Kingston shantytown, but explodes in a medley of smartly performed roles.

anitafrika is a force of nature on and off stage as she walks between rows of seats—a bus aisle for the story—with an “excuse me” or “saarry” to the audience. Rapid shifts of character build into a pastiche of folklore and family history, painting a vivid picture of the girl’s surroundings, taking the story out of a strictly female realm and into a “history of blood.”

Among the myriad figures are her stern Granny, an absent mother in “Cyaanada,” and Mudgu’s DJ lover Johnny, who loves her “like cook food in-a mouth,” but shows revulsion at the blood associated with “dem wooman ting.”

Speaking with her after the play, anitafrika was near breathless, “I’m thinking on my feet. One part of my brain is doing the show, another reacts to the audience,” she says, as she adjusts the performance on the fly, extending or abbreviating a segment. “When I’m on stage, if I feel that I have them, I can go further.”

Weyni Mengesha’s direction shapes and paces anitafrika’s vast resources into a cohesive story. Musician Amina Alfred provides a vital second voice to the show with live songs and music.

The Mystery of Maddy Heisler,
until April 20 at Centaur Theatre
(453 St. François-Xavier) (514) 288-3161,
or www.centaurtheatre.com.
blood[claat], until April 13 at MAI
(3680 Jeanne Mance)
Tickets: (514) 932-1104, ext. 226