WITNESS FOR THE PERSECUTION - A Staged Reading

Witness This Productions Presents 

WITNESS FOR THE PERSECUTION - A Staged Reading 

Written by Sky Gilbert, directed by Edward Roy starring Elley-Ray Hennessy

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, 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, using the amazing Elley-Ray Hennessy as a chilling surrogate for his own mother. It’s 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 brings together three Buddies in Bad Times Theatre alumni — all who became somewhat famous in Toronto for their theatre work at Buddies in the 1980’s, and who have collaborated with Sky on many of his plays in the past, including: Play M**der, Lola Starr Buildes Her Dream Home, Drag Queens from Outer Space, The Emotionalists, A Few Brittle Leaves, The Postman Rings Once, and Theatre Life.

Event Venue & Nearby Stays

Red Sandcastle Theatre, 922 Queen Street East, Toronto, Canada