The idyllic countryside isn’t tranquil enough to rid one couple of their past

DETAILS

The Country presented by Theatre Junction
Theatre Junction Grand
Tuesday, November 17 - Saturday, November 28

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Ah, the idyllic countryside. Open green fields, cool breezes, marital turmoil, mistresses and drug abuse.

Martin Crimp’s The Country brings the U.K. playwright’s characteristically dark observations of society to Theatre Junction Grand for its Canadian première, produced in partnership with Toronto’s Crow’s Theatre.

“I would call it a tragedy more than a satire,” says director Chris Abraham, “but it has his trademark critical scrutiny on contemporary relationships — gender, society and basically the challenge and complexities of modern life.”

The Country is about a married couple trying to escape their uncomfortable past, particularly the effects of Richard’s (the husband) drug use, by escaping to the tranquil countryside. But in Crimp’s world there is no escape from your past. When Richard arrives home one day with an unconscious woman (Rebecca), the false pretence of calm and renewal begins to unravel.

The play has been described by many critics as Pinteresque, referring to Nobel Prize-winning playwright Harold Pinter, whose dialogue is unpredictable and laden with shifting power relationships. “There’s a tremendous amount going on in the silence of the play,” says Abraham. “It’s a very verbal play, but Crimp says that language is often used as a mask to hide what’s really going on, or as a weapon.”

“I think it’s very easy to feel the potency of both silence between characters, but also the silence of the country. That’s another huge thing that I feel is in the play, is that the natural world doesn’t give a shit about us actually. It doesn’t care.”

The technical aspects of overlapping dialogue and motivational undercurrents were a challenge for the director. “There’s also a lot of game playing in the play and there’s a good deal of subtextual communication going on between the characters,” he says. “So really understanding what’s passing between the characters onstage that isn’t said, which relates to what’s going on in their core motivation.”

Crimp pens dark tales of contemporary society, ranging from the abstract montage of scenes in Attempts On Her Life to The Country’s more narrative style. “I think the thing he’s really successful at doing is articulating the things that we’re either too afraid to say to each other or admit to ourselves,” says Abraham.

“That’s really his power as a writer and that, of course, makes him a very dark writer, but I would say that his plays are not without hope.”

As much as The Country is about hope, it is just as much about dashing those hopes and exposing the fault lines built into our self-image. Terse exchanges between the characters as they stumble towards the truth reveal just as much to the audience as they do to Crimp’s creations.

According to Abraham, the playwright exposes the moments in our lives where “we fundamentally disappoint ourselves.”

“We have this idea that we are capable, good, smart people, and his plays often reveal the nature of his characters to the characters and they have to deal with that.”

“Sounds like a great night at the theatre,” says Abraham, laughing.