If the end of the world is coming, Julia Lederer’s I Am An Island imagines it arriving not with panic, but with eerie nonchalance.
At its world premiere, the play presents an unsettling theatrical fable: a woman insists her island is sinking, while those around her carry on as though denial were a daily ritual. That tension between catastrophe and complacency gives the production its intrigue, even when the script remains frustratingly elusive.
May (Siobhan O’Malley) lives on a vaguely tropical island with her sister Sandra (Kelly Van der Burgh) and Ben (Nick Dolan), who is apparently engaged to the central character. The circumstances are deliberately sketchy, but the central image is clear: May sees disaster approaching, while everyone else is too busy coping with the rhythms of island life to respond.
Lederer leans into surrealism. Sandra and Ben repeatedly mime bailing out imaginary water, treating the encroaching threat as just another household chore. May, increasingly desperate to make herself heard, resorts to a gesture of protest that leaves her literally stuck.
The supporting figures deepen the play’s oddball atmosphere. Barbara Gordon, as the sisters’ grandmother, sits off to the side like a wry witness to the unravelling, martini in hand. Brianna Rodrigues arrives as April, a pregnant visitor determined to enjoy herself before responsibility closes in.
The play is often funny, and deliberately so, but it is also a puzzler. Its thematic echoes — from Lord of the Flies to Beckett’s Happy Days — are suggestive rather than fully developed. One can sense Lederer reaching toward a meditation on climate dread, denial and isolation, yet the production never quite lands on a coherent dramatic argument.
Still, director Allison Plamondon shapes the material with a strong sense of theatrical flair within the intimacy of the Rose McQueen auditorium. The production creates an island mood that is both inviting and faintly ominous.
Darren Burkett’s lighting evokes the glow of a tiki-bar resort, while Jennie Wonnacott’s costumes maintain a crisp island palette. Ariel Slack’s set is spare but suggestive, and Adam Campbell’s pre-show soundscape of lapping water immediately places the audience in a seemingly idyllic Caribbean setting.
The cast commits fully to the play’s peculiar tone. Gordon, in particular, draws much of the evening’s laughter with a dry, watchful presence that turns even stillness into a comic choice. Rodrigues brings a welcome spark to April’s entrance, while Van der Burgh and Dolan ground the absurdity with carefully timed physical business.
O’Malley anchors the performance with conviction, giving May’s warnings an urgency the script itself sometimes withholds. In the final moments, her silence and physical stillness create one of the production’s strongest and haunting images.
I Am An Island leaves the impression of a work still discovering its final form. There is imagination here, and no shortage of ambition, but the script could use further shaping to bring its ideas into sharper focus.
As a production, however, this world premiere offers enough atmosphere, humour and arresting stagecraft to make it worth seeing — and discussing afterward.
Running time: approximately 85 minutes with no intermission.
The production runs to June 7 in the Rose McQueen Theatre at Stratford’s Here for Now Theatre, 24 St. Andrew Street, Stratford. For tickets: herefonowtheatre.com or call (519) 272-4368.
HERE FOR NOW THEATRE presents the World Premiere
I Am An Island by Julia Lederer
Directed by Allison Plamondon
Set Designer: Ariel Slack
Sound Designer: Adam Campbell
Lighting Designer: Darren Burkett
Costume Designer: Jennie Wonnacott
Stage Manager: Wendy Ewert
Performers: Nick Dolan, Barbara Gordon, Siobhan O’Malley, Brianna Rodrigues, Kelly Van der Burgh
