It’s been said many times in the years since that 2018’s #MeToo movement prompted a reckoning. The idea often conjures an image of a man, forced to reassess his behaviours and those of the men around him in light of what women have always been certain about. But in Red Like Fruit, Canadian playwright Hannah Moscovitch flips the lens: here it is female journalist Lauren (Michelle Monteith) who is reassessing what has happened to her, prompted by her reporting on a high-profile case of domestic abuse.
This is essentially a one-woman show with a twist: Lauren has just a handful of lines, her account read instead by Luke (David Patrick Flemming). The device adds an effective and meta layer to the play’s themes: of complicity; patriarchy; whose words and actions have power; and who gets to decide the narrative.
Both actors deliver gripping performances, Flemming side of stage with a monologue that dances deftly between comedic and harrowing, and Monteith in the spotlight, using only her face and body to convey gut-wrenching emotion as Lauren listens to and grapples with her own memories in real time.
Red Like Fruit is a captivating and challenging 75 minutes that asks questions audience members of all genders will still be grappling with long after leaving the theatre.
Red Like Fruit, Traverse Theatre, until 24 Aug (not 4, 11, 18), various times