S—/W— Review: Mooney on Theatre

S—/W— brings cold, hard facts to Toronto’s Theatre Passe Muraille

In 2010, Russell Williams was arrested for two rape-murders, and other counts of sexual assault, confinement, and breaking and entering. One Little Goat Theatre Company’s Smyth/Williams playing at the Theatre Pass Muraille Backspace is a dramatization of the transcript of Williams’s interrogation by — and subsequent confession to — OPP Detective Jim Smyth.

It is infuriating, nausea-inducing, and exhausting, sitting on the uncomfortable line between a necessary performance and giving an unnecessary platform to a man who doesn’t deserve our attention.

Kim Nelson and Deborah Drakeford read the transcript, switching back and forth between Smyth/Williams as the facts of the case slowly and painfully unfold. They are joined on stage by Lynette Gillis, a drummer, whose thundering percussion illustrates entire censured sections of the text.

This is not a performance you can take lightly. Nelson and Drakeford present their roles with a cool confidence that, combined with the simple set-design of an off-kilter interrogation room by Jackie Chau and an eerie lighting design by Laird Macdonald, fills you with dread.

Everything in this show is inevitable. We already know that Williams was convicted. We can look up the interrogation online. And that’s what makes that dread so much worse. I was sitting in that theatre thinking, it’s hopeless. There’s nothing you can do as you listen to the interrogation unfold. What good is it, now? I wondered, near tears and feeling sick as Drakeford — playing Smyth — presents Nelson with the incontrovertible evidence of Williams’s role in the murders.

My guest loved the fact that women were front and centre, taking the words of a predator and murderer and turning it into a call to action. In fact, that appears to be director Adam Seelig’s goal, to subvert the sexual violence Williams embodies. In the program the company argues the show “raises awareness of, and challenges the toxic culture underpinning sexual violence against women and girls.”

Does it, though? While I think there’s a ton of merit in what I saw, I don’t know if you can subvert the words of predators like this because, sadly, it feels like it gives them what they want: they get the stage and the victims get side-lined.

Smyth/Williams works to disparage the violence. Drakeford and Nelson all but drip contempt as they detail aspects of the case, but who is hearing it?

Is this staging for the women in the audience who already experience the violence? Is it for the men who want to speak out? Is it for the audience that will never see a show like this because it challenges them?

I think One Little Goat handled the material wonderfully but there’s no easy answer to these questions, no guarantees subversion will actually subvert and not reinforce the status-quo. The risk inherent in this particular text makes for an incredible show.

There was a silence in the theatre as the actors left the stage. Maybe everyone was waiting for them to reappear for their bows, but it didn’t feel that way. There were no wayward, awkward claps, no gentle murmuring between couples; just dead silence.

Details

• Smyth/Williams plays until March 12, 2017 at the Theatre Passe Muraille Backspace (16 Ryerson Ave.)
• Shows run Wednesday to Saturday at 7:30pm and Sundays at 2:00pm
• Tickets are $25 general admission, $20 for seniors, students, and arts workers; matinees are $15
• Tickets can be purchased by phone at 416-504-7529, at the Theatre Passe Muraille Box Office 4 hours before the performance, or online here
• Contains mature subject matter including graphic discussions of sexual assault and murder.

Photo of Deborah Drakeford, Lynette Gillis, and Kim Nelson by Yuri Dojc

Toronto Star on One Little Goat's S—/W—

Actress Kim Nelson, director Adam Seelig and drummer Lynette Gillis. (Andrew Lahodynskyj for the Toronto Star)

Smyth/Williams actors say play grew from empathy for Russell Williams’ victims

One Little Goat Theatre under fire for creating work from transcript of police interview with killer Williams.

By Carly Maga, Theatre Critic —Wed, March 1, 2017

The case of One Little Goat Theatre’s latest work is a conundrum: on one hand, it’s rare for an indie production to grab the interest of the public with such fervour; on the other, much of the public reaction so far has called for the its cancellation.

Smyth/Williams is billed as “an all-female staging of the police transcript (of) OPP Detective Jim Smyth’s interview of sado-sexual serial killer Russell Williams,” and opens this Friday in the 55-seat Theatre Passe Muraille Backspace for a limited eight-day run.

Adam Seelig, the artistic director of One Little Goat Theatre and director of the production, started pulling it together this winter and officially announced it in late January, almost immediately drawing condemnation from the public, press, social media and an online petition — particularly from those in Belleville and Tweed, Ontario communities close to Williams’ two murder victims, Jessica Lloyd and Cpl. Marie-France Comeau.

The headline of a National Post column by Michelle Hauser calls the play “an act of cold-blooded voyeurism,” while Kirsten Walkom, a friend of Lloyd’s, told The Canadian Press, “We need to stop sensationalizing violence against women and we’re not doing ourselves any favours in pretending this is entertainment.”

Entertainment, though, is not the word used by Seelig and his cast to describe the intentions behind Smyth/Williams.

Theatre Passe Muraille continues to support the production, saying in a Facebook statement it’s part of the theatre’s history of producing and facilitating “work that has aimed to discuss relevant social issues.”

Visiting the cast in rehearsal, there’s an abstract map of Tweed painted on the floor and pieces of lighting and tech strewn over the seating. The mood is quiet and reserved among the team, the larger context looming over the detailed logistics of tech week.

“Sometimes there is an identification that if people are representing reprehensible characters or people then we ourselves must also be reprehensible. In other words, ‘Russell Williams is sick so we are sick’ is a formula that has kind of come at us,” Seelig says.

He expected a degree of resistance to Smyth/Williams due to the tragedy and fear that surrounds the name of Williams, who is now serving two concurrent life sentences in jail.

“Something that we’ve taken to heart here and we did expect would be a very important part of what we do is that we need to honour the fact that there are some powerful emotions that surround this transcript of Smyth and Williams.”

As the main creator, Seelig has been the main voice defending Smyth/Williams, including the official One Little Goat statement that says, “as empathic citizens and artists, it is our responsibility to bear witness to these atrocities, never allowing them to be forgotten, and identifying them as part of a nation-wide epidemic of sexual assaults targeting women and girls.”

The women of Smyth/Williams — actors Kim Nelson and Deborah Drakeford, and Lynette Gillis, who provides live accompaniment on drums — say the show originated out of empathy for the victims and their communities.

“Just this misunderstanding of where it came from, it was a bit unsettling and nerve-wracking as well. Because even though we’re not sensationalizing it, reading this material takes an emotional toll every time we do it,” says Nelson. “And then to feel that someone thinks we’re trying to be disrespectful and we’re not being mindful of their pain was unfortunate because that’s so far from being the spirit of this. This is more about not abandoning the victims.”

Nelson, who alternates the roles of Smyth and Williams with Drakeford to avoid the play becoming a one-to-one re-enactment of the transcript, says she sometimes feels physically ill after rehearsal from trying to inhabit a killer while keeping his victims top of mind.

Though open discussions within the creative team were already common practice to make sure the performers were comfortable with the material, they became even more important when public discourse turned against them.

“This is my first time working with One Little Goat so I didn’t know anybody personally at all. And my gut instinct was that the entire team is coming from a good place, and this is not sensational and it’s actually a really thoughtful piece,” Gillis says.

“But the fear and anger that surrounds this, that was still hard to witness. That was a big question for me, ‘Is this still worth doing?’ It’s a very hard question to deal with and took a lot of conversations with friends, a bit of wine. I realized no, this is unsafe material in a safe environment. I think anyone who is angry or upset over this, I respect that; I completely understand anyone who doesn’t want to come. But I don’t think that means it shouldn’t happen,” she says.

“I’ve had some great conversations just about the purpose of art. I mean gosh, if you can’t bring up dark subjects in art, then where else can you bring it up?”

The issue awakened by Smyth/Williams — the portrayal of violence and evil through art — will certainly reappear in Toronto.

There was a similar conversation last season around Buddies in Bad Times Theatre’s The 20th of November, which playwright Lars Noren built using blog posts and video transcripts from a German teen who attempted to commit a school shooting.

But the proximity of Williams’ crimes, in both geography and time, makes Smyth/Williams a particularly explosive example of trying to bring fruitful discussion from personal and collective trauma. When art is at its best this is possible. But it needs to be given the chance.

Carly Maga is a Toronto Star theatre critic.

S—/W— runs March 3-12, 2017 at Theatre Passe Muraille Backspace. For more click here.

Canadian Press Article & Video on 'S—/W—'

Creative team seeks to 'reflect on endemic misogyny'

Left to right: Kim Nelson, Lynette Gillis, Deborah Drakeford in One Little Goat's S—/W—

By Lauren La Rose, The Canadian Press - TORONTO, March 1, 2017 – The creative team behind a controversial new play based on the police interrogation of convicted sex killer Russell Williams says they’re coming from a place of empathy.

“Smyth/Williams,” which debuts Friday in Toronto, is a reinterpretation of the lengthy, intense 2010 interview between Williams and Ontario Provincial Police Det. Sgt. Jim Smyth, in which the disgraced former military commander confessed to his crimes, including the murders of 37-year-old Cpl. Marie-France Comeau and 27-year-old Jessica Lloyd.

The 90-minute play features an all-female cast, with Kim Nelson and Deborah Drakeford alternating roles during the show.

The actors stand behind microphones at opposite ends of a sparsely decorated set while they read from the interview transcript. A folded military jacket and combat boots sit centre stage as a dividing line.

“We feel so much for these (victims’) families and what they’ve gone through, but we aren’t trying to sensationalize,” says Nelson. “That’s kind of the reason of sticking to the transcript and not bringing a lot of drama and (our) own interpretation to it.

“What we were hoping to do is create an empathic space where this material could be dealt with, and to help us all reflect on the endemic misogyny right now that exists in our culture — the sexualized culture we live in.”

Joining the duo onstage is Lynette Gillis, whose role as a live drummer is to play through the swaths of text redacted from the police transcript, says director Adam Seelig.

“From the very beginning of conceptualizing this production, it was very important that women’s voices be at the centre of it; that women’s voices subvert the male voices that are being represented here and start to control them,” he says.

“Just maybe having women speak it, it’s a more safe space for the audience to hear the words and to be able to more openly reflect on the piece,” adds Nelson, “and on the underlying causes of this misogyny and this violence against women.”

Once a rising star in the Canadian Forces, Williams was sentenced to life in prison in October 2010 after pleading guilty to the murders and 82 fetish break-and-enters and thefts, as well as two sexual assaults.

The production has faced sharp criticism and calls for its cancellation. Kirsten Walkom, a close friend of Lloyd and her family, told The Canadian Press in a January interview: “We need to stop sensationalizing violence against women and we’re not doing ourselves any favours in pretending this is entertainment.” An online petition argues the production forces families and friends to relive the horror of their loss publicly and calls for One Little Goat Theatre Company to reconsider staging the play.

The show’s venue, Theatre Passe Muraille, said in a statement that its role is to “provide a space where artists can freely express their opinions and explore the subject matter that compels them.”

Seelig says the creative team feels “a tremendous amount of responsibility” in telling the story onstage. “We’re doing our very best with it, and really, we do understand that it is difficult material,” he says.

“We’re hoping through the theatre that we can find a way rather than to not talk about it, to talk about it empathically. Rather than, let’s say, the way that the media will present facts dispassionately, to try to present these facts as compassionately as possible.”

For the the video version of this article, click here.
Smyth/Williams runs March 3-12, 2017 at Theatre Passe Muraille Backspace. For more click here.

CANADIAN JEWISH NEWS ON ONE LITTLE GOAT'S S—/W—

PLAY RECOUNTS SEXUAL CRIMES OF SERIAL KILLER

By Kathryn Kates — March 1, 2017

Adam Seelig, the award-winning and critically acclaimed poet, playwright and stage director, is bringing S—-/W——-. The Staging of a Police Transcript to the Theatre Passe Muraille Backstage.

The play, which he directed, recounts the horrific crimes of sado-sexual serial killer Russell Williams. It features an all-female cast including Kim Nelson and Deborah Drakeford and drummer Lynette Gillis.

The S—–/W——- refers to Williams and Sgt. Jim Smyth, Williams’ interrogator.

“Smyth/Williams is a staging of a police transcript from 2010,” explains Seelig. It is the transcript from Smyth’s interview of Williams, then a colonel in the Armed Forces who ran Canada’s largest airbase out of Trenton, about 175 kilometres from Toronto. Half-way through, the interrogation turns into Williams’ confession of his crimes.

“Everything we say on stage comes out of that transcript. The two actors are speaking the text that comes out of the transcript. They are swapping the roles and voices of Smyth and Williams, and sometimes just reading the transcripts.  It is safe to say that it is a very unconventional staging. It is easy to follow because Smyth and Williams have their own distinct voices except when Smyth is deliberately mirroring Williams’ voice – in a way to validate what Williams is saying.”

Seelig uses drumbeats to represent blacked-out redacted portions of the 10- hour original interview. Only one-and-a half hours were ever made public.

The director felt it important to present this document with a feminine perspective. He feels that the two male voices at the centre of this text stand for a microcosm for the male voices that are at the centre of our society, especially when we think of the police force and the military – both patriarchal structures.  He feels using female actors upends that and gives the audience a different perspective.

“There is so much sensitivity around this subject,” says Seelig. “I think we are in an era now that is shocking to many of us, which to put it simply is women’s rights have been called into question. We look at what’s happened south of the border. We look at someone who arguably is the most powerful person in the world – who has bragged about sexual assault with impunity. So what I want audiences to take away is a larger, national conversation about women’s rights, about sexual assault and violence against women. It is something regrettably pertinent today and is something we must explore, discuss and understand in hope of continued progress.”

Seelig wants his audience to have the experience of bearing witness to a major problem of our time, and specifically in the case of this transcript to bear witness to one of the most upsetting and difficult events in our country’s history, rather than burying it. In a Jewish context, he says we know that in the wake of the Holocaust how counter-productive it was for Jews in those early years of the 1950s, not to talk about it.

Adam Seelig, the award-winning and critically acclaimed poet, playwright and stage director, is bringing S—-/W——-. The Staging of a Police Transcript to the Theatre Passe Muraille Backstage.

Seelig is the founder and artistic director of One Little Goat Theatre  Company. His plays include Ubu Mayor, Parts to Whole Like the First Time, Talking Masks, Antigone : Insurgency, and All Is Almost Still. 

S—-/W——-. The Staging of a Police Transcript runs March 3-12. For tickets,  visit www.onelittlegoat.org or call 416-504-7529.

CIUT Radio's Lynn Slotkin Interviews Kim Nelson & Lynette Gillis

“Brave, fierce, and that’s what theatre is about: it reflects our society."

Listen to Lynn Slotkin's full interview with actor Kim Nelson and drummer Lynette Gillis of S—/W—: An All-Female Staging of the Police Transcript on CIUT Radio 89.5fm (Feb 24, 2017).

Metro News on SMYTH / WILLIAMS

Metro News, Jan 25, 2017

Play based on Russell Williams' interrogation advocates for women's rights

Theatre production featuring an all-female cast will hit Toronto stage this March

Serial killer Russell Williams’ police interrogation and subsequent confession is about to hit the stage in Toronto — told by a female cast of two through a feminist lens.

One Little Goat Theatre Company will premiere Smyth/Williams, a play based on the transcripts from the cross-examination of the embattled former military star now serving a life sentence.

The play’s goal is to highlight an issue that’s becoming more urgent in our society: Violence against women and girls.

“This problem is becoming endemic, especially in the military,” said artistic director Adam Seelig, noting a 2015 report from retired Supreme Court justice Marie Deschamps, which showed a woman in the military is five times more likely to be sexually assaulted than a civilian.

But the problem is also prevalent in other structures within society, he said.

“Look at the misogynist rhetoric coming from politics south of our border,” he said, commending last weekend’s Women’s March on Washington and others around the world. “We can’t just let the rights of women be trampled on.”

The play – which uses its female cast to “subvert the male dominance” – is an attempt to use an “extreme case” to convey a message, said Seelig.

The play is set around interviews of Williams conducted by OPP Det. Staff Sgt. Jim Smyth. They detail what happened in two rape-murders for which Williams was eventually convicted.

Actresses Deborah Drakeford and Kim Nelson alternate playing both Smyth and Williams.

Seelig said the unsettling material is intended to make people more aware of the violence.

“It’s a disturbing case, and we hope it communicates directly and strongly with our audience,” he said. “Everyone has to know that it’s our responsibility to end this issue.”

Smyth/Williams runs March 3-12, 2017 at Theatre Passe Muraille Backspace. For more click here.

CBC News on SMYTH / WILLIAMS

CBC News, Jan 23, 2017

Toronto theatre to stage play based on interview of killer Russell Williams

One Little Goat Theatre Company to use an all-female cast for the production

A Toronto-based theatre company is developing a play based on the intense police interrogation in which convicted sex killer Russell Williams confessed his crimes.

One Little Goat Theatre Company plans to premiere Smyth/Williams in March, with an all-female cast that will alternate the roles of the interrogating officer and Williams through the performance.

The company's artistic director, Adam Seelig, says he first got the idea for the play in 2010, when Williams' case and his confession to Ontario Provincial Police Det. Sgt. Jim Smyth was making headlines.

Seelig says he was amazed at the time by Smyth's ingenuity and chilled by Williams' matter-of-fact confessions to heinous crimes — all strong material for a theatrical performance.

But Seelig says he only moved to make the play a reality after noticing what he called a recent urgency around the issue of violence against women, particularly against women in the military.

Williams, once a rising star in the Canadian Forces, was sentenced to life in prison in October 2010 after pleading guilty to the murders of two women — 37-year-old Cpl. Marie-France Comeau and 27-year-old Jessica Lloyd.

The former commander of Canada's largest military airfield also pleaded guilty to 82 fetish break- and-enters and thefts as well as two sexual assaults.

Seelig acknowledges that a play based on Williams' confession to horrifying crimes deals with disturbing material.

But he said current discourse around violence against women, and the recent dialogue around women's rights in the aftermath of the U.S. presidential election, makes the play particularly relevant.

"Now is the time to look at what I will call truly tragic violence," Seelig said. "I would agree with the people who say it is hard, it's heavy, it's difficult, but it is necessary to look at it, to examine it, to raise awareness about it if we're ever going to have any chance of understanding it and curbing it."

The majority of the lines in the play will be taken directly from a transcript of Smyth's interrogation of Williams, Seelig said.

Having the actors in the play alternate roles between Williams and Smyth was also a deliberate decision to ensure a single performer was not over-burdened by playing the sadistic criminal, Seelig said.

"For one person to take on Williams and to say what Williams says is almost too much for a person who feels deeply, and most actors do," he said. "Part of it is to distribute the weight."

Williams came under police suspicion in February 2010 after officers stopped him at a roadside canvass after Lloyd went missing. Officers noticed the distinctive tires on his Nissan Pathfinder, similar to the treads they'd found near Lloyd's Belleville, Ont., home.

The military commander came in for questioning and eventually caved under Smyth's masterful interrogation techniques.

Williams methodically chronicled and catalogued his crimes, shooting videos and still photos of himself in the act and amassing a huge collection of undergarments stolen from women and girls.

The Canadian Forces stripped him of his rank after his conviction and, in a rare move, burned his uniform.

Smyth/Williams runs March 3-12, 2017 at Theatre Passe Muraille Backspace. For more click here.

CBC's Here & Now interview with One Little Goat

Jan 25, 2017

Gill Deacon of CBC's Here & Now interviews Artistic Director Adam Seelig on One Little Goat's upcoming premiere, SMYTH / WILLIAMS.