REVIEW: The Hooves Belonged to the Deer at Tarragon Theatre/Buddies in Bad Times Theatre
iPhoto caption: Photo by Cylla von Tiedemann
Content warning: this review contains mention of sexual assault.
Oh, what a year for new playwriting.
This year’s blessed us with Claren Grosz’s I love the smell of gasoline, Matthew MacKenzie and Mariya Khomutova’s First Métis Man of Odesa, and Amy Lee Lavoie and Omari Newton’s Redbone Coonhound, to name just a few. At the centre of this year’s most compelling new plays seem to be riffs on the notion of identity, and the connectedness between the characters onstage and the playwrights holding the pen.
So it goes in Makram Ayache’s daring, complicated drama The Hooves Belonged to the Deer at Tarragon, in association with Buddies in Bad Times Theatre. While Ayache’s rooted-in-truth new play at times buckles under the weight of all it tries to achieve — which is quite a bit in just under two and a half hours — the moments of brilliance binding together the story’s multiple timelines and narrative threads quickly bring any overly ambitious aesthetics right back down to earth.
And those criss-crossed timelines are complex indeed. There’s the world of Aadam (Noor Hamdi), Eve (or Hawa as she’s called in Arabic, played by Bahareh Yaraghi), and Steve (Adrian Shepherd-Gawinski), pawns at the centre of a creation story warped by self-hatred and prejudice. And here in the modern day there’s Jake (also Shepherd-Gawinski), estranged son of Pastor Isaac (an unnervingly convincing Ryan Hollyman), unhoused and battling addiction as well as his own sexuality.
But blazing at the core of the play is Izzy, a young, queer, Muslim (actually Druze) boy living in rural Alberta. Izzy’s played by Ayache, an unsurprising choice on the part of both him and director Peter Hinton-Davis — the autobiography of the play is part of what makes it so fascinating — and Ayache plays him with such warmth and tenderness that the casting makes perfect sense. Izzy has a crush, Will (an endearing, standout Eric Wigston), but his Muslim parents are unlikely to support a homosexual son, so he keeps their blossoming relationship secret.
In the absence of parents, there’s Pastor Isaac, who’s Bible-thumping, charismatic, opportunistic, and, yes, truly well-meaning. In his eyes, he’s saving Izzy from the devil when he outs him to his parents, when he overloads him with scripture and heirloom Bibles. While Izzy’s own self-hatred is the prevailing antagonist of the play, it’s Pastor Isaac who most consistently coaxes that hatred out, tending to it like a child.
These stories all weave together, tightening around the maladjusted, neurotic, perennially lonely Izzy. When years of unresolved trauma finally catch up to him, it’s quickly — and to my eye, under-foreshadowed by content warnings — in the form of a fully staged oral rape and stabbing at the end of the play.
The Hooves Belonged to the Deer has much to say, and for the most part Ayache’s play communicates what it needs to without losing its train of thought. The Adam/Hawa/Steve creation story can feel frustratingly slow at times; the relationship between Izzy and Pastor Isaac is the most developed and compelling layer of the play, and more often than not I found myself itching to get back into that story whenever our attention was diverted elsewhere. As well, Izzy and the men in his world nurture rich inner lives with nuance and innumerable layers — the same is not always true for Hawa/Rebecca, whose stage time (and emotional development) is comparatively limited.
It’s aesthetically where The Hooves Belonged to the Deer at times bites off more than it can chew. Apples as symbolism for temptation begin to feel a little redundant by the play’s final breath, and a water mechanism which drenches Hawa feels unnecessarily showy for little dramaturgical payoff. Nevertheless, Anahita Dehbonehie’s set is striking and provocative, a stage covered in red dirt with a ladder, table, and benches to suggest the play’s many settings. Hinton-Davis uses those benches well, bringing slow, gentle motion to the background of scenes using whichever actors aren’t needed in a given scene (Corey Tazmania is the choreographer and intimacy director). Whittyn Jason’s lighting design, too, is excellent, using footlights to cast menacing shadows on Pastor Isaac’s face during sermons and disturbing pep talks.
The Hooves Belonged to the Deer is a major accomplishment for both Ayache and Tarragon, perhaps the most high-reaching and brave production of this remarkable season at Tarragon. And despite its occasional falters, Ayache’s play punches well above its weight in terms of tackling uncomfortable, deeply personal content through use of religious allegory.
The Hooves Belonged to the Deer runs at Tarragon March 28 through April 23, 2023.
Aisling Murphy
Aisling is Intermission's senior editor and an award-winning arts journalist with bylines including the New York Times, Toronto Star, Globe & Mail, CBC Arts, and Maclean's. She likes British playwright Sarah Kane, most songs by Taylor Swift, and her cats, Fig and June. She was a 2024 fellow at the National Critics Institute in Waterford, CT.
LEARN MORE
iPhoto caption: Charlie and the Chocolate Factory production still by Dahlia Katz.
REVIEW: YPT’s Charlie and the Chocolate Factory is appropriately sweet
Director Thom Allison’s production embraces Charlie’s many incarnations and tones in a slick rendition that’s both fun sugar high and candy overload.
iPhoto caption: The Lion King production still by Matthew Murphy/Disney.
REVIEW: The Lion King offers audiences a cat’s-eye view of sensory delights
Twenty years after The Lion King’s last open-ended Toronto run, Julie Taymor’s directorial and design concepts remain Pride Rock-solid, spilling out from the stage into aisles, balconies, and above the crowd.
iPhoto caption: A Case for the Existence of God production still by Cylla von Tiedemann.
REVIEW: A Case for the Existence of God makes meaning of platonic intimacy
The play’s urgency and strength come from the gentle way it presents male vulnerability and platonic intimacy — for lack of which men may burn themselves, or the rest of us, to the ground.
iPhoto caption: Photo by Mathieu Taillardas.
REVIEW: Feu Mr. Feydeau! takes charming liberties with a famous playwright’s life
Feu Mr. Feydeau! is an effortlessly enjoyable historical fantasy that takes on death, the creative act, and life's bittersweet disappointments.
iPhoto caption: Dead Broke production still by Calvin Petersen.
REVIEW: Comedy-horror hybrid Dead Broke successfully spooks
While the non-horror aspects of the show lean towards the more amateur, the scares are incredibly successful. This show pulls off the theatrical horror with seeming ease: That’s reason enough to check it out for yourself.
iPhoto caption: What the Constitution Means to Me production still by Dahlia Katz.
REVIEW: What the Constitution Means to Me froths with urgency
Despite the surprisingly intimate nature of the material, I found myself more impressed than moved by this show. It’s one of those pieces that slowly reveals itself as theatrical premises strip away, and perhaps it’s the extra layers of distance and biography that for me kept the material at an emotional distance.
iPhoto caption: J. Kelly Nestruck headshot courtesy of The Globe and Mail.
An exit interview with Globe and Mail theatre critic J. Kelly Nestruck
J. Kelly Nestruck has left the building. (Or at least the aisle seat.)
iPhoto caption: Photo of Annemieke Wade courtesy of TAPA.
TAPA appoints Annemieke Wade as new executive director
Wade steps into the position with an extensive background in theatre, with past roles including executive director of Roseneath Theatre and Theatre Direct and company manager of Tarragon Theatre.
iPhoto caption: Beowulf in Afghanistan graphic courtesy of GCTC.
Beowulf in Afghanistan to make world premiere at GCTC
As part of its 50th anniversary season, Ottawa’s Great Canadian Theatre Company will program the world premiere of Laurie Fyffe’s Beowulf in Afghanistan, in a production directed by Company of Fools artistic director Kate Smith.
iPhoto caption: My Name Is Lucy Barton production still by Dahlia Katz.
REVIEW: Maev Beaty sparkles at the centre of a sparse My Name Is Lucy Barton
In Rona Munro’s adaptation, My Name Is Lucy Barton loses some bite; it’s debatable how well the idea works as a piece of theatre. That said, Beaty gleams in a rousing solo performance that showcases her range and emotional depth.
iPhoto caption: Interior Design production still by Jae Yang.
REVIEW: Interior Design sparkles with zillennial wit
Interior Design watches its Peloton-using, social media-obsessed heroines from an empathetic vantage point, holding space for these women and their problems.
UnCovered returns to Musical Stage Company with U2 and the Rolling Stones
“What you see in the audience is really the tip of a very long collaborative iceberg,” says Wong, artistic associate at Musical Stage Company and arranger, orchestrator, and music supervisor for UnCovered. “It’s a really diverse cast of voices and styles, and they’re all bringing their A-game. It’s starting to get really exciting in the room.”
Comments