Looking Glass Theatre presents first show of 26/27 season: Legal thriller SUMMATION by Marc A. Moir

Looking Glass Theatre, Steinbach and southeastern Manitoba’s professional theatre company is excited to present their first show of the 26/27 season, Summation by Marc A. Moir.

Moir’s most recent offerings as a playwright have been LGT’s adaptations of A Christmas Carol and Pilgrims Progress. This play is his first original offering in several years, and he and Co-Artistic Director Laura Kathleen Turner are excited to star in this exciting new Canadian work.

Summation is a tense legal thriller centred on a high stakes civil defamation trial. The plaintiff, college athlete Marcus Quentin Samuels, was accused of sexual assault by the defendant, teenager Kayleigh Dawn Mann. After being found not guilty in criminal court, Samuels is suing Mann for defamation of character. Mann is countersuing for the assault.

Moir and Turner play the two warring lawyers arguing the case. After three weeks of brutal legal combat, the play is their two “summations” or closing arguments. These are interwoven with scenes from earlier in the trial and the professional and personal behind-the-scenes negotiations between the litigators.

This tense he-said she-said drama highlights questions of consent, the impact of mass media and social media on the legal system, and how personal presuppositions, perceptions, and biases are always present.

For Moir, the play centres around the following question: What do you do when you have two people who both seem equally credible (or not), telling you two diametrically different stories about an incident?

“We want life to be black and white, “ says Moir, whose service as a juror first sparked the idea of doing a courtroom drama. “In reality, much of life tends to be grey, and for a lot of people that’s uncomfortable—but it’s also where great drama lives.”

“Part of the fun of this show is at the end of each performance, the audience gets to decide, “ says Turner who plays the council for the plaintiff. “You get to be the jury and vote. The verdict could change each night.”

“I really hope it does,” says Moir who plays the lawyer for the defence. “I really want people, by the end of Act I, to say, it’s a slam dunk, and then, in the first five minutes of Act II have them go, oh, wait a minute, hang on.”

Summation will run for two performances at the Steinbach Arts Council on Oct. 9 and Oct. 10 and one performance at The Output at Arts-Space Winnipeg (100 Arthur St) on Oct. 12. The play then goes on hiatus as the company prepares for a larger international tour this spring.

Tickets and season passes (including VIP passes) are on sale now at www.lookingglasstheatre.ca/summation

his play deals with sensitive subject matter and is intended for mature audiences.