Malcolm Green, Cydney Watson, Shelayna Christante and Justine Christensen in “The Bluffs
Presented by Midtwenties Theatre Society
The Bluffs is a gothic horror melodrama set in a cliff-side cottage in Muskoka. With plenty of classic literary tropes of the genre, it feels comfortingly familiar. At its core is a story about a very traumatic dysfunctional relationship and some very conflicted grief, though it’s really the play’s grandiose horror segments that drew me in.
Eleanor (Shelayna Christante) arrives at the rural cottage she owned with her late wife Lorie, already on edge. She’s immediately started by the appearance of Jordan (Malcolm Green), Lorie’s estranged brother. He’s been hiding out there, trying to reconcile conflicting feelings. They are both haunted, literally. Lights flicker while an approaching storm rolls in, recreating the circumstances of Lorie’s gruesome death.
Seems Lorie was pretty awful to the both of them. I can’t say the heartfelt drama of Sarini Kumarasinghe’s script held much weight for me. The podcast that Eleanor is listening to sets up some nice ideas about grief. and the podcast host’s (Justine Christensen) dual identity feels suitably purposeful. The dialogue though, when it veers into full emotionality, gets pretty trite and hokey. But then, a buyer for the cottage shows up—a flighty woman named Macy (Cydney Watson). And when she declares herself a medium and starts conjuring Lorie’s ghost, the play starts to get very, very funny.
Folks, there is a seance and possession and it’s… a lot. Is the Grand Guignol spectacle intended as camp? I’m not entirely sure, but I was fully on-board regardless. Its goofy, but undeniably the most compelling the show gets. And it’s here that the performances feel more authentic too. In the sombre moments, they seem stiff and unnatural. When the spooky shit hits the fan, they have motivated action to push them along. Shout out to fight choreographer Michael Ruhs for some decently convincing antics here.
Director Jacqui Sirois‘ production, while excelling at the garish, slightly over-the-top scary shenanigans, also maintains a decent atmosphere and sense of place. You do sort of feel the surrounding woods, water and the looming storm, but some technical fumblings hurt the overall mood—specifically, Connor Wan’s sound design often blasts the ambient soundscape.
Vishmayaa Jeyamoorthy’s lighting is most affective in heightened genre moments. Christina Dovolis‘ costumes are a definitive highlight—consistently capturing each characters’ vibe and relatively interesting to look at. Mike Sirois’ minimal set is fairly banal until very late in the game, when you realize it’s been designed to easily facilitate the finale’s messy devastation.
Though I don’t think The Bluffs is a strong play, especially in its more sober aspects, I do appreciate its commitment to examining an unambiguously problematic relationship, the difficulty in confronting it head-on and the insidious tendrils that linger and creep into adjacent lives.
The Bluffs
@ Toronto Fringe Festival
running July 3 to 14, 2024
Theatre Passe Muraille Mainspace (16 Ryerson Ave)
running time: 75 minutes
