Rick Roberts and Karen Robinson in Prophetess.Supplied
- Title: Prophetess
- Written by: Ho Ka Kei (Jeff Ho)
- Directed by: Mike Payette
- Actors: Karen Robinson, Christine Horne, Natasha Mumba, Rick Roberts
- Company: Tarragon Theatre
- Venue: Tarragon Theatre
- City: Toronto
- Year: Runs until Oct. 29
There’s something almost mystical about the world of higher education. Academia brings to mind images of wood-panelled offices and sun-soaked libraries; deep in the throes of study, knowledge and magic can begin to feel one and the same.
In Prophetess, playing in a mercurial world premiere at Tarragon Theatre, Professor Margaret Anjou (Karen Robinson) knows intimately the alchemy of learning. She’s obsessed with words – the origins of popular swear words are among her specialties. Historically, whenever her mind has started to unravel, words have always been there to stitch it back together.
But Margaret might have gone too far this time. On the first day of school, the professor slaps new hire Anne (an excellent Natasha Mumba) across the face. There are no words to excuse the gesture – none that will satisfy pinched HR representative Elizabeth (Christine Horne), anyway. For a precipitous moment, it looks as if Margaret’s tenure might be at risk. No longer will her biggest problems include finding the perfect cut of meat at the local butcher, or choosing just the right verb to express her indignation with the world.
Natasha Mumba and Robinson in Prophetess.Jae Yang/Supplied
Playwright Ho Ka Kei (Jeff Ho), who also serves as Tarragon’s associate artistic director, offers a compelling hook in its grief-stricken professor, whose increasingly erratic behaviour can no longer gel with the stringent expectations of higher learning. There’s a palpable question that floats just above the surface of a play imbued with historical intrigue: What must academia be willing to sacrifice in order to accommodate the complexities of genius?
In director Mike Payette’s overly broad production, however, that question largely goes unanswered. There’s no reason Prophetess shouldn’t be earth-shattering: Robinson’s take on Margaret is laser-focused and sharp, with intricately crafted layers that help to blur the play’s most obvious plot twists. Ho’s script, too, is tantalizing in its imagery, if somewhat heavy-handed in its Next to Normal-style character switcheroos. Visceral references to spiders, beef and kouign-amann pastries help to construct a thoughtful portrait of Prophetess’s deeply flawed heroine.
But Tarragon’s production never quite clicks into place. Much of Ho’s script is played for laughs: Margaret’s is an overwhelmingly unfunny story of trauma and loss, but in Payette’s care, it’s inexplicably paced like a sitcom. Rick Roberts, meanwhile, tasked with playing two characters, feels both under- and overused at the margins of Margaret’s breakdown.
Mumba and Christine Horne in Prophetess.Supplied
Both he and Horne do what they can with their respective material, but neither quite has room for their characters to occupy three dimensions. Mumba avoids falling into the production’s misplaced sense of mirth, but feels similarly sidelined by the play’s prevailing interest in Margaret and her crumbling psyche.
On a more physical level, Payette’s blocking is surprisingly choppy, with key conversations placed behind the arches of Jawon Kang’s attractive set. Transitions between scenes, too, are oddly languid in a play that might lend itself better to a tighter, more frenetic staging. That said, Logan Raju Cracknell’s lighting design is gorgeous, and pairs well with Laura Warren’s skin-crawling spider projections.
But Robinson, currently best known for her work on Schitt’s Creek and Law & Order Toronto: Criminal Intent, offers a rich performance that offsets most of those quibbles. As embodied by Robinson, Margaret’s is an inner rather than outer journey, shared with us through subtle facial expressions and barely perceptible changes to the quality of her voice. Despite Robinson’s history as a stage actor, her recent run of screen work brings an intimacy and vulnerability to Margaret that nearly – nearly – renders the problems of Prophetess moot.
Robinson in Prophetess.Supplied
If I’m left disappointed by Prophetess, it’s only because Ho and Payette’s last collaboration, 2022’s Cockroach, was such a revelation. In Cockroach, arguments about etymology and its role in human survival were cogent and gripping; abstract movement sequences beautifully complemented the play’s more literal sequences of dialogue.
Prophetess, by extension, feels less like a prophecy and more like a spell gone wrong. Sometimes, that thaumaturgy is riveting – fast-paced arguments about the implications of an apology make up some of the play’s best fodder. But more often, the play skitters like one of the spiders at Margaret’s periphery: determined and headstrong, to be sure, but just the tiniest bit aimless.