Review: VIERGE at Great Canadian Theatre Company

What happens when four Congolese-Canadian teenage girls gather in a church basement for bible study group? Less worship and praise and a lot more boy-talk and Songi Songi (Lingala for gossip).

In Vierge, by Montreal playwright Rachel Mutombo, which opened last night at the Great Canadian Theatre Company, the extremely devout and sheltered Divine (Espoir Segbeaya) has recently changed churches and asked her parish priest for permission to start a bible study group. She is joined by three others – sisters, Grace (Seeara Lindsay) and Sarah (Joy Mwandemange), and the former pastor’s daughter, Bien-Aimé (Symantha Stewart). Sarah recently immigrated to Canada and her relationship with Grace see-saws between congeniality and fractiousness. Bien-Aimé has a deeply buried secret. And Divine is desperate to make friends with these more worldly girls, while maintaining her deeply cherished virtue. Divine manages to walk a fine line, with the girls slowly reading The Book of Ruth together while weaving the bonds of friendhip - that is, until an after-hours party, loosely veiled as a youth church activity, and the consumption of a little too much “truth juice” has disastrous results.

The show’s set design (by Zoe Roux) replicates the intimacy of a small room within the church basement, while a small staircase allows the stage to be split when required. The double doors extend the area, and the lighting design (also by Roux) is expertly used to mimic different types of lighting, including fluorescent lighting, multicoloured party lighting, and focal lighting, with little details for emphasis (whenever the girls pray, the image of Jesus over the doorway glows ever so slightly).

Cast performances are excellent, with each actor capturing the quirks of their characters’ complex personalities and flaws. Segbeaya's Divine is naïve and self-righteous, but sincere and joyful. Lindsay's Grace is vivacious, her self-assured exterior masking her fear of being inadequate. Mwandemange's Sarah is trying hard to fit in even though she knows that she is different from the others. And Stewart's Bien-Aimé maintains a pretense of nonchalence mixed with innocence, although the latter has already been shattered.

Mutombo’s first full-length play, Vierge delves into mature themes of sisterhood, trust, innocence, and truth, while maintaining a sense of humour and capturing the essence of the trials and tribulations of being a teenager. The first three quarters of the show have a youthful, upbeat energy as the girls spend their bible sessions dancing, bantering, and even bullying each other.

There is a palpable shift in the latter part of the show, where darkness lurks and is used to underscore the message of the play. This is perfectly illustrated in the final scene, where we see that, like the biblical Ruth, hardships suffered by Divine and her friends will unite them in their faith, and that the goodness of humanity will prevail over evil. This underlying message feels especially timely, given the escalating conflict in the Democratic Republic of Congo, as well as the current precariousness of global relations.

And, while it would have been gratifying to see the abused rise up and emerge victorious against their aggressors, fiction mirrors reality where, too often, disavowed victims suffer silently and must lean upon their faith to endure. 

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