Volcano Theatre – Michael Redhill’s Goodness

reviewed by Paula Citron
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Goodness
Volcano Theatre
Written by Michael Redhill
Directed by Ross Manson
Starring Gord Rand, Lili Francks, Layne Coleman, Tara Hughes, J.D. Nicholsen and Amy Rutherford
At the Theatre Centre until Sept. 27
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Volcano Theatre is presenting a short run of Michael Redhill’s Goodness before touring to Rwanda. The premiere of Goodness was in 2005 at the Tarragon. Since then, the play has gone through a serious overhaul in terms of economy, and what emerges is a starker and shorter incarnation. No matter what the changes, however, the play remains harrowing.

Redhill’s premise is genocide, and the playwright has actually written himself in as a character, performed by Gord Rand. The loss of Redhill’s Polish relatives in the Holocaust is the jumping off point.

The play itself is a moral morass, as Michael hears about a more recent, unnamed genocide, and the trial of a war criminal who is supposedly suffering from Alzheimer’s. In the process, Redhill raises many ethical questions so that no one leaves this play without debating about it.

Ross Manson’s direction may be a triumph of simplicity, but the play itself runs deep.

Goodness continues at the Theatre Centre until Sept. 27.