A FRANK DISCUSSION
New play drawing from Jian Ghomeshi scandal explores themes of sexuality and consent,
Asking for It
(out of 4) Written by Ellie Moon. Directed by Brendan Healy. Until Oct. 21 at Streetcar Crowsnest, 345 Carlaw Ave. Tickets at crowstheatre.com or 647-341-7390 ext. 1010. Ellie Moon’s debut as playwright has been three years in the making, to the month. And that play, Asking for It, begins where her idea also began, with a public Facebook post written by Jian Ghomeshi.
At a four-seater table, businesslike and formal, actors Moon, Christine Horne, Steven McCarthy and Jaa Smith-Johnson take turns reading out that infamous statement from the former CBC radio host asserting that his firing was unjustified, that employers have no place in the bedrooms of their employees and that his fans will be crucial in defending his reputation. A few verbatim comments from that post follow and illustrate the immediate support Ghomeshi received from political and artistic leaders, as well as everyday listeners, and then their immediate retraction.
The sickening aspect of this opening is not only the resurgent memories from this post and the subsequent trial, but, of course, all of the other times we’ve heard such accusations and denials rise (and disappear) in news headlines since. In this moment, that Facebook post eerily echoed a letter Harvey Weinstein sent to his Hollywood colleagues, pleading for their help to stop his board of directors from terminating him, which they eventually did.
The movie stars he worked with in his career are emerging as enablers underneath false indictments, while others are emboldened to share their own stories of sexual harassment. If the show premiered next year, or even a few months from now, there would have undoubtedly been a more recent hook to use in this introduction.
But three years ago, the hook for Moon was the Ghomeshi case, and it sparked in Moon a need for open conversations around sex and consent, which she realized were quite rare.
The resulting documentary-style play — on now with In Association Productions in association with Crow’s Theatre, Nightwood Theatre and Necessary Angel Theatre Company — is less about dwelling over the cases in the news and more about coming to terms with our personal sexual desires and how we communicate them respectfully and without shame in heterosexual, male-female dynamics.
Director Brendan Healy stages the first act of interviews in that formal style, the actors reading from scripts into microphones, while Moon plays herself in front of friends, her sisters, strangers and a sexual partner. On the surface, it’s a summation of various viewpoints — how the abused become abusers, the importance of communication in dominant and submissive relationships and how anti-feminists think the conversation is meant to punish men’s sexuality. It also looks at how consent is an ongoing, amorphous concept and how it can maybe take all of the fun out of the whole encounter anyway, so why should we poke too much at it.
Even on this surface level, Moon’s script, and the actors’ performances, reflect back upon the audience a multitude of mostly fumbling, often awkward, sometimes passionate interrogations into heterosexual relationships and dynamics.
But for the play’s second act, Healy removes the chairs and tables and frees the actors to (literally) move in a more personal direction. The concepts move from postulation to lived, as we follow one night with Moon and her friend “Maria” (all names have been changed in the script) from a first-year college workshop on consent, to a personal confession, to a charged subway ride, to a rift-causing story. From the final scene, where Moon lets her friend take on the role of interviewer, it becomes clear that the sharpest way through this matter is a personal one, which means watching the play is only half the work of tackling our feelings over sexuality.
So it would behoove Asking for It to give the audience a clearer signal to leave on, a more impactful sendoff, even if it lies in ambiguity — in fact, even better if it does. As it is, as an afterthought, Moon tacks onto a heavy moment a reminder of the questions asked in Asking for It.
If most conversations and confessions around sexual assault come after an inciting incident or a spark in the headlines, all Asking for It needs is one of its own.