Creative team behind Russell Williams play seeks to ‘reflect on endemic misogyny’
TORONTO — The creative team behind a controversial new play based on the police interrogation of convicted sex killer Russell Williams says they’re coming from a place of empathy.
“Smyth/Williams,” which debuts Friday in Toronto, is a reinterpretation of the lengthy, intense 2010 interview between Williams and Ontario Provincial Police Det. Sgt. Jim Smyth, in which the disgraced former military commander confessed to his crimes, including the murders of 37-year-old Cpl. Marie-France Comeau and 27-year-old Jessica Lloyd.
The 90-minute play features an all-female cast, with Kim Nelson and Deborah Drakeford alternating roles during the show.
The actors stand behind microphones at opposite ends of a sparsely decorated set while they read from the interview transcript. A folded military jacket and combat boots sit centre stage as a dividing line.