Tarragon Theatre’s Light sheds judgement in favour of acceptance

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• Title: Light
• Written by: Rosa Laborde
• Director: Jackie Maxwell
• Actors: Sara Farb, Linda Kash, Maurice Dean Wint, Philip Riccio
• Company: Tarragon Theatre
• City: Toronto
• Year: Runs to March 13, 2022, in person; available digitally March 15 to 27.

Finally, Light at the end of the tunnel.

Tarragon Theatre, one of the most important new-play companies in the country, is back up and running at last in Toronto - and first on stage is a fascinating world premiere from playwright Rosa Laborde about the power of speaking up versus the power of silence.

Light is set at a spiritual retreat in the mountains described as an ashram. Willow (Sara Farb), a journalist, is a new arrival and must spend the first ten days on site in total silence. This makes the reasons for her presence naturally mysterious.

It’s clear from her interactions with spiritual leader Mukti (Linda Kash), half of the couple that leads the retreat, that she has some sort of personal connection to some of the residents of the ashram. But it’s equally apparent from her body language in the presence of Mukti’s partner in life and enlightenment, Theo (Maurice Dean Wint), that she is not a true believer.

Without words, Willow forms what seem like genuine relationships with a writer-turned-gardener named Jesse (Philip Riccio) and a pregnant woman with a history of abusive relationships named Angie (Christine Horne).

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But when she sneaks off with fellow new recruit Valentina (Maria del Mar) for a forbidden cigarette and breaks her silence, it becomes clear how out of sync she is with the community. Counterintuitively, the more she talks, the more distance is created between Willow and others around her.

Director Jackie Maxwell’s production has an ambiguous tone that leaves it up to the audience to make their own judgements about the teachings on offer based around meditation and mindfulness. This makes it difficult to figure out what moments are intended to be funny, but illustrates well how subjective spirituality is - how a mantra that helps one individual through a traumatic time can easily be viewed by another as a banal phrase only worthy of a mass-manufactured throw cushion.

Light’s ashram is a place where followers are told that concepts like race, gender and identity are false and only divide humanity. But, modern journalist that she is, Willow believes that this is code for ignoring reality and systemic injustice. When she discovers a relationship that might be described as “problematic,” she certainly has ammunition for an article that would depict what she calls a “cult” in a negative light.

But will she betray the community that she has embedded with? And can you actually cancel a group of people who have already retreated from society (and the Internet)?

There’s a great exchange between Mukhi and Willow in which the theme of judgement versus acceptance (or, perhaps, social justice versus mindfulness) is beautifully put into contrast. “You’re making assumptions based on the past,” Mukhi says. “Experience,” counters Willow.

Farb, a Stratford Festival and Broadway veteran, brings all her talents to bear on her depiction of Willow’s complex ambivalence - and shows how it stems from personal pain. The various shades of silence with which she bookends the play are a masterclass in acting that goes beyond the verbal.

Her performance is even more impressive given that Light shines harshest on her character.

Willow can be downright unlikeable, in particular, in her interactions with Theo and Mukti’s daughter Beni (Shakura Dickson). She has the excessive pride of a tragic hero, but exists in a play structured like a comedy. This keeps her journey at arms-length, emotionally, for better or for worse.

Intriguingly, this play about mindfulness ends up being one you watch slightly detached - and examining your own thoughts about it as it unfolds. Bertolt Brecht would approve, if not Eckhart Tolle.

Personally, I wondered how much Light was really about the theatre world that Laborde has risen in to prominence in since her play Léo premiered at the Tarragon a little over 15 years ago. It too is a non-denominational community that walks a fine line between enlightenment and cult; I just happen to be a true believer in its power, which I’m glad is returning.

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