The Flood at Imago
From February 15 to February 25, the Centaur Theatre is presenting “The Flood”, a play brought in by the Imago Theatre. Written by Leah-Simone Bowen and directed by Yvette Nolan, this show is a tribute to the forgotten women of Canada’s history. 19th century Toronto, though normally considered a beautiful multicultural hub, was home to a cruel secret. A women’s prison hidden under the largest market in Canada, keeping women in harsh, terrible conditions, for crimes that they did not commit.
This show focused on the story of 5 women; “Indian” Mary, “Irish” Mary, a Black slave, an elderly Russian immigrant, and a “cripple”. It explored their pasts and the reasons for their incarcerations, as well as showcasing the lives that they led in the prison.
One very important aspect of the play was the setting. The entire 80 minutes were spent within the walls of the cells, never changing or diverting from the scene of captivity.
There were 4 platforms which housed the women, as well as a wall of bars behind them. Even as each woman explained their individual stories, the cells remained where they were, and the women remained inside of them.
The symbolism of this is glaring, as the play tragically ends in the death of almost every character. They never left the prison, no matter how much they might have hoped and prayed. This is where they lived and died. Everything else in their life was overshadowed by the endless suffering of the cell walls.
Another interesting element was the casting choice. With multiple male characters in the show, there always remained only one male cast-member. Every woman in the prison had suffered at one point in their lives at the hands of a man. “Irish” Mary was pregnant due to abuse and sent to jail so that her rapist could live out of shame. The Russian immigrant was sent away by her violent husband due to the ‘hysteria’ of menopause. Each woman had a story.
These womens’ crimes were simply that they existed in the world of men. Ultimately, there was no difference between the men. They were only what they represented: abuse and control. The same actor played the prison guard, and each male family member of the immigrant.
These characters all represented some form of control over the lives of the women in the prison, allowing the director the space to symbolically represent the institution of Man that women were subjected to.
The symbolism of water was also an incredibly important aspect of the play. Every minute of every day, water would drip down from the market into the prison, resulting in the women never being fully dry. They spent their lives shivering from the cold, unable to become warm because of what was above their heads.
Water was also a big part of “Indian” Mary’s past, as the only memory she has of her childhood is almost drowning. This is a fond memory though, because her mother had saved her and kept her safe from falling down in the depths.
The play ends with a large flood sweeping in from the market, killing everyone in the prison except for Mary.
Perhaps representative of Toronto’s guilt, perhaps representative of the endless suffering of the prisoners, water is undoubtedly an incredibly important theme of the story.
Lastly, the use of the color red was a very large symbolic point of the story. In an important scene in the play, the prison guard is seen putting the prisoners on display as if in a circus. The women were forced to act out the role of “dangerous criminal” for an audience. Each woman was given an object to represent their crime, and all of these objects were red, in order to showcase their shame.
All of these objects were representative of crimes not committed, and they were all used to further push the discrimination and hatred being perpetuated towards these women.
In sum, “The Flood” was an incredibly symbolic and important play, shedding light on the secret shames of Canada’s past. The undocumented and overlooked stories of these abused women are finally being told, and told beautifully.
I am so thankful that I had the opportunity to attend such a meaningful show, and that I was able to learn so much about a largely important part of Canada’s history.
If you are able, I recommend everyone to go see this show, in order to experience the meaningfulness of the history of Canada’s women.
