stage left: Vierge by Rachel Mutombo
Black Theatre Workshop
February 3, 2025
TEXT CONTENT FROM GRAPHIC ABOVE
Title of production: Vierge
Run dates:
February 12 (Pay What You Decide), 15 (Black Out Performance), 19, 20, 22, 25, 26, 27 & March 1 - 7:30PM
February 16 & 23 - 3:00PM
February 18 - 2:00PM
March 2 - 3:00PM
Performance venue: Segal Centre for Performing Arts (Studio Space)
Give us an elevator pitch of your show.
Sixteen-year-old Divine’s only real friend is Jesus. When her family joins a new church she learns that the world around her is not as it seems. With heart and humour, Vierge follows four Congolese-Canadian girls as they navigate Christianity, virginity, and teenage hormones.
Why is this play important for audiences to see right now?
The play explores important themes relating to the intersection of church and social politics in a Congolese-Canadian community, as seen through the lens of four young women. The play raises questions around topics of respectability politics, sexuality, spirituality and belonging.
The play works to move away from explaining the subject matter it’s exploring and instead presents the themes through the lives of the characters. Instead of acting as a metaphor, the characters become a window into which the audience can witness their realities.
In a sentence, tell us about the vision or the message for this production.
With this production, we hope to shine a light on the intersection of church and social politics in the Black community.
How has the current social or political climate influenced this production?
Vierge takes place in a community heavily dominated by the politics of a Christian church that follows right leaning conservative values, and where there is a strong emphasis on respectability politics. The play unmasks the hypocrisy of these conservative politics, specifically in the context of young women (whose social and spiritual worth is contingent on being chaste and ‘sexually pure’) who are preyed upon and taken advantage of by men in the community.
The themes of this play are certainly in conversation with the current shift toward right leaning conservative politics in Canada (and across the border in the US), the laws and policies threatening reproductive rights and rights of LGBTQ+ people, and the movement to speak out against rape culture.
How does this production align with your company’s mission or artistic vision?
Black Theatre Workshop’s mission is to promote and produce outstanding theatre that educates, entertains and inspires. The company strives to create greater cross-cultural understanding by challenging its audience and the status quo. Vierge is written by Rachel Mutombo, a brilliant local Montreal playwright whose sharp and witty writing looks inward toward a specific diasporic community to tell a story that will be resonant to every audience member, regardless of their background.
BTW is excited to offer a play that looks toward young Black women for lessons on how to move through a complicated world with integrity, strength and humor. With this piece we hope to both educate and inspire the city’s creative community, and build bridges across cultural divides through a shared artistic experience.
How does this show fit into the broader season or future plans for your company?
BTW strives to tell Canadian stories that are timely, ask important questions and have a real impact on our local and national cultural ecology. The company is dedicated to encouraging local and Canadian playwrights, which we do through our season programming, our Artist Mentorship Program (AMP) and with our professional development forward playwrights’ festival “Club Zed”.
Montreal based playwright Rachel Mutombo’s play Vierge follows in the tradition of programming plays that are culturally and socially relevant, like Donna-Michelle St.Bernard’s Diggers, and Djennie Laguerre’s Taking Care of Maman (2023-24 season).
Vierge
By Black Theatre Workshop
February 12 - March 2, 2025
Segal Centre for Performing Arts