Ah, to be challenged in the theatre once again.
What a wonderful thing.
That’s exactly what playwright Steven Elliott Jackson intends in the daring A Question of Character, now on stage at the Aki Studio in the Daniels Spectrum. I was completely unaware of Leni Riefenstahl’s background as a filmmaker until I read Jackson’s programme note.
The production played in Hamilton in summer 2025. I wasn’t able to see it then, and I prayed the play would make its way to Toronto.
Thank you to all for making it happen.
Under Alice Fox Lundy’s crisp, in-focus direction, Jackson’s play not only poses probing questions about art versus the artist but also commands attention for its two riveting performances from Paula Wing and Tanisha Taitt.
The setting is the cozy, intimate apartment sitting room of German filmmaker Leni Riefenstahl (Paula Wing), warmly lit by Vishmayaa Jeyamoorthy’s lighting design. Leni prepares for a visit from fictitious journalist Paulina Mitchell (Tanisha Taitt). Wing enters a few moments before the production begins. As Leni, she primps the room, making sure the space and she are presentable and ready. When Paulina enters, the two women exchange pleasantries.
While remaining professional initially, it becomes clear that both women have done their homework on each other before the interview begins. Leni knows Paulina is interested in film. Paulina is aware of Leni’s extraordinary influence in cinema and is particularly interested in her work on Triumph of the Will (commissioned by Adolf Hitler). What’s troubling, as director Lundy points out in her Programme Note, is that Leni was also a creator of Nazi propaganda and complicit in some of the greatest horrors of the twentieth century. She never took responsibility for her role in creating the work.
As the conversation unfolds, two gripping backstories emerge. Accusations, taunts, and threats fly back and forth with fierce intensity, leaving me gasping a few times as certain realities become clear.
As Leni, Paula Wing is personable and charming at first. She listens intently to Paulina’s questions. Wing’s Leni responds intuitively and deflects when the questions become a tad too pointed at the beginning of the conversation. Like Wing’s Leni, Tanisha Taitt’s Paulina is poised and gracious at the beginning. Taitt responds in kind at the beginning of the conversation by listening to Wing’s story about Leni’s love of film. Yet when the truth of the moment emerges and Paulina’s family’s involvement is revealed, Taitt grounds herself in a strong, logical and defensive position against Wing’s Leni. The visual impact of these two ladies standing off against each other becomes a dramatic highlight.
Over the next 65 minutes, it’s fascinating to see the social veneer stripped away, a growing sense of natural-sounding discomfort in the dialogue between Paulina and Leni emerge, and a line drawn between the two women. The former will sometimes clutch her bag protectively, as if there’s a secret inside. The latter brushes off accusations at times with nary a hint of remorse or guilt, believing she has done nothing wrong. This dismissal of any collusion between Leni and Nazi propaganda becomes thrilling and unnerving for the audience to listen to, hear, and make any kind of judgment. Who’s telling the truth? Can that individual be believed for what she says or for what she implies?
There is a troubling reality behind Jackson’s A Question of Character that also makes for really good theatre in this production. That reality is the term ‘guilt by association’. If an artist produces content found to be harmful because of an affiliation with something awful, does that constitute complicity? Is that just or fair? What is human responsibility when atrocities happen all around us? Are humans to decide for themselves what is to occur?
A complex dilemma where there is no easy answer, especially when human beings are at the centre.
I look forward to seeing what Stephen Elliott Jackson has planned next. He is one of Canada’s finest storytellers.
Most importantly, go see A Question of Character for masterclass acting by Paula Wing and Tanisha Taitt.
Running time: approximately 80 minutes with no interval/intermission.
A Question of Character runs to January 25, 2026, at the Native Earth Aki Studio, 585 Dundas Street East in the Daniels Spectrum. For tickets: https://nativeearth.ca.
A co-production by Stakes & Embers and Minmar Gaslight Productions presents
A QUESTION OF CHARACTER by Steven Elliott Jackson
Co-producers: Tanisha Taitt and Steven Elliott Jackson
Director: Alice Fox Lundy
Lighting Designer: Vishmayaa Jeyamoorthy
Performers: Tanisha Taitt and Paula Wing
