TO A FLAME – REVIEW OF 2026 PRODUCTION BY 1S1 THEATRE AND NIGHTWOOD THEATRE

Reviewed by James 

To A Flame is theatre that blindsides you. Well, it did me. Three women are on stage, dressed similarly in long, blue dresses and call themselves sisters in the small Nancy and Ed Jackman Performance Centre on Yonge Street. There is a cellist on the side of the stage. We hear the sound of powerful winds and obviously foul weather outside. The women move around but we really don’t know what they are about. They are Madeleine who is Deaf, Harriet who is Black and Fanny who has  a mysterious deficiency. They all have problems but they are lively and dance around the stage as they reveal previous horrors and present fears.

They were “rescued” by “our father” who is not their biological father of course but we think that he may well have been their “savior.”  Projection designer Laura Warren provides a rich array of projections and gives us a view of the mansion in which they are living. We see the elegant exterior of the house and the large staircase and chandeliers inside. We are taken to different rooms and exposed to projections  throughput the 90-minute show. This is a Victorian era horror show. We never see "our father" but we do hear his views and the status of the women. 

The conversation among the three is carried in American Sign Language and English and we get a glimpse of their past and their status in the social ladder. They are all outcasts with Deaf people barely qualifying as human. The use of ASL gives the production an additional intensity in what is an explosive revelation of the women’s lives and their treatment at the hands of the father.

 Nickeshia Garrick, Dawn Jani Birley, and Juliana Monk

Photo by by Dahlia Katz.

The women dance, jump over furniture (there is only a table and a chair on the stage), reveal past horrors but look deceptively happy as we realize that they are in a house of horrors. They have deficiencies that the father wants to cure. Madeleine’s deafness can be cured by hearing lessons. Harriet’s deficiency is that she is black. Fanny is subjected to a gruesome operation to find out and cure her deficiency. 

The production is the premiere of Erin Shields’ new play that is subtle, imaginative and a brilliant examination of oppressed people. She has found ways of capturing our attention with a riveting plot.

The three actors give outstanding performances in English and ASL. They combine dancing, athleticism and movement individually and a unison to an extraordinary degree. This is acting at its finest. They are Jani Birley as the deaf Madelein, Nickeshia Garrick as the black Harriet and Juliana Monk as Fanny, the white woman with the mysterious deficienc 

Sound designers Deanna H. Choi and Jenna Geen provide a rich array of background sounds. Cellist Beth Silver plays pleasant or dissonant music depending on what is happening to the three women.  

This is a play with many layers packed full of intense situations of drama, fear, jocularity and dance with the extraordinary addition of communicating in ASL. They give bravura performances in a very small playing area. The use of superb lighting by Lighting designer André du Toit adds to the atmosphere of the horror story.

Josette Bushell-Mino directed & choreographed this extraordinary play, which I admit blindsided  me and that is perhaps the highest compliment one can pay to a theatrical production.

I do so.
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To A Flame by Erin Shields in a 1s1 Theatre and Nightwood Theatre co-production
in association with Modern Times Stage Company and Why Not Theatre played until October  until October 4, 2026, at the Nancy and Ed Jackman Performance Centre, 877 Yonge St. Toronto, Ontario.

James Karas is the Cukture Editor of The Greek Press, Toronto