Witness for the Persecution at Théâtre Sainte-Catherine

Witness for the Persecution is more than just an entertaining take on the famous courtroom-drama film of a very similar name (Witness for the Prosecution) starring Marlene Dietrich and Charles Laughton, directed by Billy Wilder (1957). It is a dark and enthralling experiment in melding performance art and theatre, in which Sky Gilbert (former artistic director of Buddies in Bad Times Theatre in Toronto, and one of Canada’s most controversial artistic forces) invites his own mother to the witness stand to defend him.

Sky Gilbert is 73 years old, and it is a time of reckoning. Sky calls his mother Pat Gilbert to the witness stand. Sky’s actual mother Pat passed away 11 years ago. The woman on stage claiming to be Sky’s mother, looks, acts and speaks like Marlene Dietrich from the famous film adaptation of the Agatha Christie play.

In this — at times hilarious and yet deeply felt — camp melodrama, Sky Gilbert confronts his own demons, live on stage. In Witness for the Persecution Sky Gilbert plays himself opposite the amazing Gavin Crawford playing a chilling surrogate for Sky Gilbert’s own mother. Gavin Crawford, best known as a brilliant comedian and radio personality as well as a genuine Canadian TV star. He is also a consummate actor, having received the Dora Moore Award twice for acting in Sky Gilbert’s plays:once for playing the lead in The Situationists in 2011 and once for playing a woman — (Viola) in A Few Brittle Leaves in 2013.

Appropriately, Witness for the Persecution is a little crazy, a little funny, and a little dangerous. Did Pat Gilbert love her son Sky? Or did she figure out, early on, that she had given birth to a kind of monster of gay activism — a ‘fag from hell’ who would only bring her shame? Did Sky’s mother’s homophobia destroy him — and cause him to hate himself — drive him to alcoholism? Is she responsible for turning him into a relentless slut?

You see the show. You decide.

Witness for the Persecution also takes on much larger issues that speak to us all. How much are we responsible for our own lives? Is it right to blame our parents for anything? What do parents do in the name of love for their children? Their actions are certainly sometimes criminal — or does it just seem that way? Or are they just natural actions that come from love? Finally, can a mother love her son too much?

Witness for the Persecution is Sky Gilbert’s professional theatrical debut as a playwright. in Montreal: he now calls Montreal home. Sky’s professional acting debut in Montréal was in 1997 when he received rave reviews as ‘Otto’ in Nicky Silver’s The Food Chain at the at The Saidye Bronfman Centre for the Arts (now the Segal Centre for Performing Arts).