Istvan Dugalin ➤

Cast of The Ensemble | Photo by Amanda Escudero

Everything is a remix and all that, but I’ve definitely been here before—in this meta-theatrical space, with the actor-character dichotomy expanding and contracting as an existential scenario unfolds. Six Characters in Search of an Author by Luigi Pirandello comes to mind. With The Ensemble, presented by Perchance Productions and The Second City, Aliyah Bourgeault and Emmet Logue have adapted José Sanchis Sinisterra’s Los Figurantes, which is playing around in the same absurdist sandbox. 

I’m not familiar with Sinisterra’s play, so I’m not sure how faithful this is to his intentions. A quick glance online suggests this doesn’t stray too far from it. Having locked the main players up in their dressing rooms, the ensemble of a sprawling period play scramble about the stage looking for meaning in the absence of the leads. While indulging a variety of actorly tendencies and manifesting their theatrical destinies, they debate how much control they actually have in this scenario. They eventually discover that their impulses may not be as spontaneous or self-determined as they think. 

Cooper Bilton and Diana Eremeeva establish my favourite interpersonal dynamic right at the top as pair of spear-holding guards awkwardly struggling to exist purposefully in a space where the repeated fanfare sound cue never once produces an entrance. From there we meet a variety of bit players with generic names that betray their lack of dramatic specificity—a Page, Three Capuchin Monks, Prisoner 3, Conspirator 9, Ladies 5 and 6, you get the gist. Perhaps the most hilarious to me is Town, the one lone dude left to represent an entire background population.

I don’t find the script quite as clever or philosophically intriguing as I imagine it’s trying to be. Again, I’m not sure if the original play is more effective on that front, but this lacks the genuine pathos that gives absurdist humour proper dimension. (Metalworker 8’s monologue comes pretty close.) Overall, this feels a little too freewheeling for its introspective ambitions. Though the characters talk about it, the concept of free will isn’t being wrestled with in any substantial way. The tension between performance and true identity—the actual actors’ names keep slipping, collapsing the space between real and unreal—is intriguing, but never fully pays off. 

That said, I don’t want you to think I didn’t have a good time, because I absolutely did. This has plenty of entertainment value. The actual ensemble, for instance, are an endearing and disparate bunch with solid comedic chops. Bourgeault, Logue, Bilton and Eremeeva are joined onstage by Mila Trichilo, Iza Rincón, Aaron Ford, Julia Middleton, Morgan Roy, Jack Mosney, Kaleb Piper, Dale Rideout, Maya Granic, and Chrisevina Tsoura. Individually and as a unit, they are distinctive and compelling as scenes clump them together and spread them apart. There is also plenty of shop talk for theatre folks. While dramaturges are a legitimate part of the theatre-making process, they are consistently the butt of an in-joke whenever a play mentions them. (Perhaps as an industry we should unpack that.)

The unruly action often devolves into mayhem and director Christel Bartelse has done a fine job of giving the chaos a dynamic shape and rhythm we can properly track. This is especially note-worthy as the wide and shallow playing space is, I suspect, a significant challenge. 

One of my favourite bits is when the ensemble decide to commit to the original play on their own, going through the motions and treating us to a handful of brief, hilariously nonsensical scenes as they plow through with the pivotal characters absent. This sequence doesn’t last long, which was disappointing as it aligns so perfectly with my particular sense of absurdist humour. 

I missed this at the Toronto Fringe Festival this past summer and am glad I could catch this remount. Despite my issues with the play itself, the cast is killing it!

The Ensemble
October 16 to 18, 2025
Second City Toronto’s Theatre ’73
(1 York Street)
60 minutes

Aaron Ford in The Ensemble | Photo by Amanda Escudero