Promise Productions explores addiction and grief in their production of Deon Denton’s To Jane with Love, directed by Denton and running at the Al Green Theatre during Toronto Fringe. The show will also be featured in the Midtown International Theater Festival in New York later this month.
Scenes of the evolution of Henry (Geoff Mays) and Jane’s (Mish Tam) relationship weave in and out of the aftermath of a life-altering traumatic experience that changes their lives forever. As much as Henry resists help from his psychology-spouting parole officer Jonas (Philip Cairns), it’s his 10-year-old neighbour Sushanna (Aviv Cohen) who appears to be getting through. Running through Henry’s story, we also see the recovery process of two support group members (Fraulein Almariego and Shobba Hatte).
Mays gives a nice, multi-faceted performance as Henry; a sharp cynic with a serious drinking problem, he’s also a romantic at heart with a deep love of words. Tam is adorably bubbly as Jane; a vibrant spirit who loves books, and revels in performing choice quotes and pieces of poetry. Cairns gives a solid, layered performance as Jonas, the wry-witted and wise parole officer who executes his job with a no-nonsense brand of tough love, and struggles with the clients who don’t make it. Cohen is a treat as Sushanna; a wise guy herself, she shares Jane’s love of books and has an insatiable – and sometimes inappropriate – curiosity. And really nice work from Almariego and Hatte as two women in different stages of recovery.
The stages of grief and struggle for recovery injected with humour in the moving To Jane with Love.
To Jane with Love continues at the Al Green Theatre until July 10. For ticket info and advance tickets/passes, check out the Fringe website.
life with more cowbell 