Read This, Then That: Characters on the Margins

Read This: Twisted by Charlotte Corbeil-Coleman and Joseph Jomo Pierre (Playwrights Canada Press)Then That: In Care by Kenneth T. Williams (J. Gordon Shillingford)Twisted is a modern-day, loose reimagining of Oliver Twist set in Toronto. A two-hander, the play follows Ollie, a foster care teen/drug dealer, and Nancy, a young sex worker, who become fast friends and together try and escape their downtrodden situations. Written largely as a series of text messages between Ollie and Nancy, the play is contemporary with urban dialogue that enhances the play’s setting.Similarly, In Care centres on marginalized characters: Janice is an Indigenous woman, who after a life of drugs and prostitution as a teen turns her life around to take care of her three children until a false accusation lands them in foster care. The play touches on themes of racism inherent in our system and the extra barriers put upon disadvantaged people. Like Twisted, the setting is urban, but follows a less linear narrative as Williams plays with time and space moving seamlessly from one location and time to another.

* * * For more of our literary pairings, check out past Read This, Then That duos here.