This collection of four plays by Canadian playwright Judith Thompson has been given the title The Other Side of the Dark and when reinterprets that particular arrangement of words to describe evil and malevolence, it is inevitable that one will eventually arrive at a more familiar terminology: the dark side. Whether other side or dark side or flip side what have you, the meaning is clear: human have a dual aspect to them, one that is every bit as capable of performing mindless acts of violence as random acts of kindness.
Like the rest of her work, the four plays collected here are present visions of the dark side human nature. I am Yours even features as a “character” in the narrative a malevolent force or creature hiding inside the walls. This presence is a metaphorical rendering of the potential for danger when repression manages to break through the walls of the subconscious and enter in the full consciousness. It is a portrayal of darkness that is a bit more literal in its manifestation of the other wide of the dark lurking behind the walls of our souls.
Of her initial success on the stage, Crackwalker, Thompson has declared it to be a play that explores the abyss: that Nietzschean metaphor for the always looming crack in foundation of sanity which lures with its siren song of giving into despair and telling the whole world to take a flying walk down a short pier. In its exploration of the darker recesses of urban existence most people never see, the play is less manifestly about the dark side of human nature than I am Yours while at the same time being more accessible to the ideal of the potential dangers lurking unseen all around us.
Tornado moves away from the abyss (walking too close to the crack in the earth) as a symbol of the dark despondency of hopelessness to, what else, a cyclone. The whirlwind is capable of flinging a person from here to there and in the process who you are where you land is not necessarily who you are when the wind sucked you up. Inherent in the very concept of there being the other side of the dark are issues of identity. A recurring theme running throughout the works of Thompson, but especially palpable in Tornado is the fluidity of self-identity and the consequences that can result from this lack of a sturdy foundation. After all, if one is not sure about their own identity, what chance do others have at framing it correctly?
The other side of the dark is at its most tangible display in the dramatic monologue titled Pink. It is a short work that touches upon one of the greatest evils in the world—racism—that focuses on the viscerally black and white society of South African Apartheid. The monster in the wall that serves as a metaphor for the potential of malevolence to be unleashed becomes absolutely personified in Pink.
Taken together as a unit, these four plays have little to connect them on the basis of plot or construction. In addition to two stage plays, one is a dramatic monologue and Tornado exists as both a radio drama and traditional stage play. While the stories range across a broad expanse, they are all unified collectively as an exploration of that other side of darkness promised in the title the volume.
