Staged in a stuffy and earthy space that once served as the draining room for an ice skating rink, play-writes Josh Tyler and Tahli Corin explore the ideas of compassion and our willingness to help one another through a vibrant, character driven script. Upon entering the already steamy room we were confronted with the startling image of a bound woman standing on a block of ice with her head in a noose and her face obscured by a pillow case. It soon becomes apparent that this is no suicide attempt as the woman vainly tries to gain assistance from passers by on the public street.

These characters are creepy and bizarre at best and too wrapped up in their own worlds to give any assistance in this dire situation. Tahli Corin and Patrick Graham portray the various street caricatures with immense energy and humour. Graham’s rambling, crazy dentist is a particular highlight, making the most of the well-crafted dialogue. Corin gives a humorous performance and executes a remarkable accent as the lonely, over worked cleaning lady. But on closer inspection all of these characters are quite disturbing; the loud mouthed little girl who has an obsession with Jump Rope for Heart hints at an abusive, dysfunctional home environment. The little old lady reveals her experiences of living with a man gone mad from war who takes his own life. Although it was hard to take these issues seriously when the characters were so animated and the delivery was slightly over-performed.

As the time went by the block of ice under the woman’s feet really did start to melt, adding an element of real tension to the performance. Ptiika Owen-Shaw made the most out of her part, obviously limited in her movements and her dialogue. Although by the end it seemed that the screams were just getting louder and her lines wordier, which deferred somewhat from the impeding climax. The minimal set was effective and the lighting was spot-on, moving from broad daylight through to dusk to urban night seamlessly. Few props were used to transform the characters. In most cases it was one item, a pair of glasses or a scarf that would signal the arrival of a new character. This only highlighted the strong talent of the actors.

Josh Tyler has proven himself as a young writer/director to watch. He and partner Tahli Corin have come up with an original and challenging work that is a great character vehicle to showcase some strong performances. However Conclusions: On Ice is let down by lack of character development. It could have been much stronger if the focus was more on the individual’s motivations rather than grabbing at cheap laughs based on social stereotypes.

Photo Courtesy of Sin Agua, Creative Commons