By Steve Fisher

Actors Antonio Cayonne, Akosua Amo-Adem, Jessica Greenberg, and Kevin Walker use anonymous interviews to portray the viewpoints of shelter residents and workers in The Middle Place. Photo by Aviva Armour-Ostroff.

It’s rare indeed for Toronto theatre companies of comparable size to “share” a new play, and even rarer for both to feature it in the same season. But that’s the case with Project: Humanity’s The Middle Place, which ran for a month last November at Theatre Passe Muraille, and is currently playing at Canadian Stage‘s Berkeley Theatre.
A cynic might attribute this to a lack of co-ordination between our local companies, which are notorious for programming show openings on the same nights and generally being uncommunicative with each other. But The Middle Place is a play of uncommon social relevance and effective storytelling, and as Canadian Stage’s artistic director Matthew Jocelyn states in his forward for the show’s programme, “The spirit, humanity, and profound artistry of this project have enabled a unique collaboration between two Toronto theatres.” Both he and Passe Muraille’s Andy McKim recognized when the show first premiered at the 2009 SummerWorks Festival that this was a work that should be seen by as many people as possible.

Playwright Andrew Kushnir and other members of Project: Humanity had spent two years building a relationship with the administrators, caseworkers, and, most crucially, the transient residents at Youth Without Shelter, an emergency residence for displaced youth (up to the age of twenty-four) situated in Rexdale. The company began by giving bi-weekly improv workshops, and Kushnir started working on a short play tailored towards the shelter’s residents. He gradually became convinced that a verbatim theatre piece, using interviews he conducted with the staff and residents, would end up being more powerful.
The admissions and revelations from the anonymized residents about how they came to be at the shelter, their backgrounds, and hopes and intentions for the future are alternately surprising, heartbreaking, and inspiring. Kushnir has done an extraordinary thing in weaving all the material together and presenting the varying experiences of his subjects. Their stories resonate in the telling, and offer a rare and humanizing glimpse into an understandably guarded and mistrustful community.

Playwright Andrew Kushnir (centre, with back turned) interviews his subjects from off stage throughout performances of The Middle Place. Photo by Aviva Armour-Ostroff.

In the first iteration of the play, Kushnir was played by an actor who questioned the subjects from the aisle and balcony. For these and future runs, the playwright himself is the off-stage (but often visible) interviewer, eliciting increasingly frank responses from his subjects.
Director Alan Dilworth has subtly refined the simple staging, with a white, circular, slightly raised platform at centre stage occupied by the residents, who step out of the circle to become the case workers and administrators. In order to get back into the circle, they must raise their hand and be “buzzed” through—a clever bit of staging that hints at the entrapping nature of life in a shelter.
Actors Antonio Cayonne (a founding member of Project: Humanity), Akosua Amo-Adem, Kevin Walker, and Jessica Greenberg (who has been replaced since we saw the show by choreographer Monica Dottor, due to Greenberg’s other commitments) all do superb work playing multiple personalities—the term “characters” seems inappropriate, here. It’s especially impressive considering that none of the actors, including director Dilworth, have seen the interview footage: the memorable personalities they’ve created are based entirely on printed transcripts and their own work with other youth.
While all the on-stage work is noteworthy, Walker’s troubled young men, particularly those who struggle to express themselves, are especially mesmerizing. Recent York theatre graduate Amo-Adem, who really impressed us in the 2009 staging of the play, is even better this time around. Her most memorable character, Kaliah, is a combative survivor who suffers no fools. She hasn’t been softened, but is less of a bully this time around. And as the shelter’s supervisor, she delivers her best advice on remaining positive in the face of such miserable hardship: “Practice it—want to have hope.”
The Middle Place runs to March 12 at Canadian Stage’s Berkeley Theatre (26 Berkeley Street), Monday–Saturday at 8 p.m., with Wednesday 1:30 p.m. and Saturday 2 p.m. matinees; visit Canadian Stage’s website for ticket pricing and more information.