The Mill

by Matthew MacFadzean, Hannah Moscovitch, Tara Beagan

A unique theatrical endeavor comprised of plays written by four of Canada's most celebrated playwrights. The series reveals the shocking story of a mill's past, exposing the secrets of the land's inhabitants as the plays jump through time. Includes Now We Are Brody , The Huron Bride , The Woods , and Ash.

Genres: Plays

304 pages, Paperback

First published November 15, 2011

Reviews

[Marc · Rating 3 out of 5]

Part 1: Now We Are Brody - 4 stars
Part 2: The Huron Bride - 4 stars
Part 3: The Woods - 3.5 stars
Part 4: Ash - 1 star

Starts out strong and fizzles out in Part 4 -

[Laura · Rating 2 out of 5]

The writers of the play state their intention in the foreward: Canada’s approach to the dirtier areas of our history is to bury it under the floorboards and pretend it doesn’t exist. In writing the play, McFadzean and co wanted to metaphorically unbury this history, expose it to the light, and re-baptise the participants to allow them to progress to a new era. It’s a noble goal. Whether or not it’s one they succeed in is … another question entirely. Simply put, these plays didn’t feel finished. I suppose that might be a consequence of the format- they were never written to stand alone- but since I read them all at once, that’s not really an excuse. I know it’s meant to be a story of the time and place more than one of the people, but without the people to support the atmosphere, it just feels like a mood piece, which effectively destroys the sense of largeness they tried to accomplish. What happened to Charlotte? We never find out. Why was Lyca bad from the start? No answer. What gave Bear and Bird and Rabbit the ability to break free of the Mill’s past? Yes, Bear stopped himself from killing the baby, but there was no apparent reason for this, especially since Lyca forced him to kill Father just a scene earlier.

Lyca was also an extremely problematic character- I understood her motivation for faking her assault in “The Woods” (except holy shit that is not okay Tara Beagan!) but after she became a Wendigo, her character kind of bounced out the window. I understand the compulsion to have a character personifying the evil of the Mill, but the choice of Lyca to represent it felt like a cheap “creepy child” gimmick on the part of the writers. If we’re talking about the history of crimes against the people and land of Canada, why on Earth did they pick a little Native girl to represent it? Of all the groups that have been fucked over in Canadian history versus the groups that have done the fucking, a character with Lyca’s background is firmly in the former category. And this is our villain? Really?

(Of course, there were other villains, like Father- but unless I missed my guess, it was implied that Lyca influenced him to molest/rape Bird? What. The. FUCK.)

So. The Mill. Attempted moral of the story: our history comes and goes in cycles, and until we recognize the damaging patterns we perpetuate, we cannot move forward as a society. Actual moral of the story: little girls are fucking evil.

Womp.