Words: Alex Grunberg

4 Stars

Ellen Toland offers a powerful and emotionally demanding performance as she takes on the role of an actress. She begs for a part on a police procedural that she should be perfect for.

The audience, now casting directors themselves, are forced to reckon with our expectations. What makes the “right” kind of victim? Toland highlights the reality being the wrong kind of victim. A real victim. One that does not fit neatly into our episodic TV education in crime and justice.

Toland brings a story of scattered memories and critical self-reflection to life on a nearly bare stage, utilizing the stark space and sparse props to great effect. Our imagination fills visual the gaps of slipping between present and past, between nearly internal monologue and outright conversation.

Throughout the show, Toland almost always wears a pained smile that threatens to dissolve into tears. And moments of humour give the illusion of breaking the tension, but in the play’s world of introspection, this “fawning” approach only heightens the despair. It is a familiar neediness that we both demand in actresses and victims, and simultaneously judge and punish them for. We ask them to perform their pain, and then give notes when it does not ring “true.” 

What is true is not always what is expected. 

A thoughtful show performed by a talented actress.  

Pretty Good, Not Bad
theSpace @ Surgeon’s Hall, Haldane Theatre
10:45
Aug 20-24