PROGRAM | Enormity, Girl, and the Earthquake in Her Lungs

Director's Note

I’m thrilled that the School of Performance at Toronto Metropolitan University and these amazing third years have taken a chance on this wild, complicated, and beautiful play.

Playwright Chelsea Woolley wrote this piece through Nightwood Theatre’s Write From The Hip emerging playwrights’ program, which I led for five years prior to stepping in as the company’s Artistic Director. I’ve been wanting to direct Enormity, Girl, and the Earthquake in Her Lungs for several years, and until now, COVID has been in the way.

It has always been important that Enormity is performed by people of numerous identities to underscore the multitudes of lives and bodies that violence touches, especially at home where we should be safest. It was originally written for a cast of 29 with no delineation of who would say what, and was then sculpted into a play for a cast of seven with distinct roles. Now returning to its original impulse as a huge choral explosion - but with distinct characters - has been a thrill with this large, beautiful cast. 

In The Body Keeps the Score: Brain, Mind, and Body in the Healing of Trauma, Dr. Bessel A. van der Kolk writes: “Trauma results in a fundamental reorganization of the way mind and brain manage perceptions.” In Enormity, the piece’s form is a reflection of the content: of a mind in crisis. It is chaotic, noisy and overwhelming. 

Dr. van der Kolk also writes: “As long as you keep secrets and suppress information, you are fundamentally at war with yourself…” On stage, this internal conflict in Vic’s mind is embodied by five characters: Ago, Grind, Lull, Sham and Ward who compete with each other as they pull and push her in opposing directions. 

I’m grateful for the care and devotion the students have brought to this process - it’s so inspiring to see them devise, discover, and shine.

Thanks also to Chelsea who has gone above and beyond in bringing a rich workshopping experience to our rehearsal hall with this epic work. 

"We should have been taught to scream."