Obsidian Theatre Company – Marcia Johnson’s Late/Wesley Enoch’s Black Medea

Paula Citron
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Obsidian Theatre Company Double Bill
Marcia Johnson’s Late directed by Marjorie Chan
Starring Sabryn Rock, Mazin Elsadig and Edwige Jean-Pierre
Wesley Enoch’s Black Medea directed by Philip Akin
Starring Audrey Dwyer, Lindsay Owen Pierre, Mariah Inger, Tiffany Martin and Isaiah Bell
At Berkeley Street Theatre Upstairs until Oct. 5
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Obsidian Theatre Company is Toronto’s premiere black theatre ensemble. It’s first offering of the season is a double bill – Marcia Johnson’s Late and Australian aboriginal playwright Wesley Enoch’s Black Medea.

Johnson writes about universal issues. Her characters in Late could be any ethnicity. Her central character Donna and her relationship with her two borders, Locksley and Carol, after the death of her husband, raise troubling questions about denial.

Enoch’s play Black Medea is about a collision of cultures. Just like the ancient Medea gave up everything for Jason, this bush Medea moves into the white world of her aboriginal husband and is destroyed by it.

Enoch is almost too earnest in poetic language in his faithfulness to the original. Johnson is almost too elliptical in getting to her main theme. Nonetheless both plays are well acted and well directed, and present a compelling evening of theatre.

Late and Black Medea continue at Berkeley Street Theatre Upstairs until Oct. 5.