Theatre Inconnu’s The Moors

The Moors. Naming the place conjures images of Cathy and Heathcliffe, a dark and brooding expanse that seems endless, an unknowable fear and darkness looming in every corner of a dark house. In a similar tradition, The Moors by Jen Silverman hold a sense of fear around every corner, and adds profundity, laughter, and maybe even human connection as well.

As an audience, we have to just accept what is told to us, in the bizarre surrealist way that it is. What you think you know isn’t what you know, and once you know, the rules change again and you don’t know what you think you once knew. And somehow, it all makes sense. Best summed up from the co-directors notes: “the boundaries between reality and the surreal blur, and where every laugh carries and edge of darkness“

The show runs two hours, and clips along at a very reasonable pace. The beginning pacing drags a just little, but it’s all necessary to get it later. The script is weird and funky, and I mean that with the utmost respect.

From my recollection, Innconnu shows recently have been a bit more pared down, leaning into the black box, small-cast shows. While those pared-down shows are great, it’s wonderful to see such a textural, robust show which showcases unique set dressing and costuming as well as so many challenging technical elements. While all the aspects worked very well, I made note of the incredibly clever projections by Jason King. These might just be my favourite of all that I’ve seen of any in the Little Fernwood!

With many of the big production roles in this show being “co-” managed, it’s a natural worry that there could have been a sense of artistic tension, but all the technical and directorial elements came together seamlessly. There’s a true artistic cohesion and clarity. There’s evidently a harmony behind the scenes that allowed all the technical elements to come together smoothly and clearly. The look and the feel of the piece was incredibly polished!

Deftly handled by a cast of six, the weirdness is offset by well-chosen moments of truth and emotional reality which keeps bringing us back to the humanity of the piece. Rosemary Jeffery’s eldest sister Agatha immediately sets us on edge, she’s nefarious, scheming, and at moments, we see right through to her vulnerability. Michelle Mitchell’s Huldey, a younger sister, is given the lion’s share of the humour in the script and Mitchell takes these comedic moments to their utmost limit, hers is a challenging role to play against the dark script – and she does it with charm and a youthful flair. Christine Samson’s Marjory is played mostly straight, and I so want to talk more about her role, but that would give some of the game away! But suffice to say, there is so much to this character that Samson explores. Governess Emilie is played by Devon Side Walker, who I immediately assumed would be an airhead ingenue and I was delighted to be wrong.

Finally, the creatures of the mastiff and moor hen are played by Anton Brakhage and Georgia Tooke respectively. These animals were such unexpected gems of this show! When I heard that there would be anthropomorphic animals on stage, I wasn’t really sure which direction this would go, and I was a bit skeptical. Instead, these two have such a philosophical, profound role in the show in a way which I never anticipated. Brakhage and Tooke use the physicality and mannerisms of their respective creatures to tell a separate but integral story to the main house. Truly, some of the most powerful moments in the show belong to these lovable, but decidedly animal, characters.

Overall, The Moors is a show that keeps bringing us back into the fold while asking us to fill in the blanks. With a strong technical foundation, the cast built a strong set of characters who took us on a journey and had us for almost every moment of this two hour epic. This is a show that leans into the surreal, and I’m not going to pretend that it’s everyone’s cup of tea – but if you have any interest in seeing theatre that takes you somewhere new in a way you didn’t expect, I highly recommend a visit to The Moors.

The Moors runs until Oct 4th, 2025. An ASL production is available on Oct 1st.

Disclaimer: I received free tickets to the show as a result of other volunteer work I do. No review was expected or requested.