Hello internet,

A couple nights ago, I went to opening night of Riot King Art Market’s production of The Moors, playing in the Theatre Centre’s intimate incubator space. It’s a new-ish play (2017-ish) by Jen Silverman, who is very much having a moment right now – both in Toronto and in the States. The Roommate was on Broadway in 2024, and Witch was at Soulpepper earlier this year. My friend Ryan says The Moors is basically the same play with a slightly different plot…I didn’t see Witch, but he’s a smart cookie, so I’ll take his word for it.

It’s not possible to discuss this play without totally spoiling it. Well, it is possible, but that’d be no fun. Buckle up.

The Moors follows a young governess, Emilie (Blessing Adedijo), who’s invited by one Mr. Branwell to work at his remote manor in Northern England. She arrives to find no child to take care of – just two depressed sisters (Raquel Duffy and Lindsey Middleton), a maid whose name changes depending on the room she’s in (Erin Humphry), and a dog (Jack Copland). Yes – the only man onstage is a literal dog. The other is only referenced and, as it turns out, is chained up in the attic for breeding purposes. Not exactly subtle with the commentary, there, Jen Silverman.

I’ll cut to the chase: high production quality. This was my first Riot King show, and I hope it’s not my last. Dazzling costumes (Madeline Ius…wow). Some really striking lighting moments (design by Franco Pang). Everything tech-wise felt tight, inventive, and far from low-budget. The script itself, though – intriguing, but not my fave material.

The play opens with a pile of unanswered oddities, using Emilie as our outsider POV. Where is the child? Is the man of the house alive or dead? Why does the maid change personas in different rooms? Why does everyone refer to the same space by different names, as if they’re entirely different rooms? When one sister, Huldey (Middleton), says “time moves differently in the Moors,” are we heading into a supernatural kind of situation, or is it just a comment on their bleak existence? The play sets up a lot of intriguing ideas – but never fully pays them off.

There’s no child – Agatha (Duffy), the elder sister, invited Emilie partly out of loneliness, but mostly to get her to sleep with her brother and produce an heir. The maid’s shifting name is a playful, symbolic nod to power and hierarchy, and adds to the absurdist tone. The static set becomes another surreal detail with a practical function (there are no set changes; here’s a convenient explanation). But none of it builds to a satisfying reveal.

There are also some sweet, surrealist scenes between the lonely dog (who talks!) and a moor-hen (Heeyun Park박희윤), who become unlikely friends. These were nice tonal breaks, and both performers were captivating, but the scenes started to feel repetitive, and the 1 hour 50 runtime (no intermission) dragged a touch.

Let’s double down on spoilers and skip ahead to the ending. The maid convinces Huldey to kill her older sister, Agatha. Huldey seems to go along with it out of boredom, depression, and a craving for notoriety. The maid’s motivation is murkier. Sure, you can read it as a rebellion against her lack of agency and place in the household, but it doesn’t feel fully developed enough to justify that level of escalation. And then what? Does she go after Huldey next? Does she want the house? It’s unclear in a way that doesn’t feel deliberate.

And what happens to Huldey? She sort of just…disappears, à la Wicked Witch of the West “I’m meeeeeeelting!” The dog returns in the final scene drenched in blood – far more, I might add, than the tiny smear on Huldey’s forehead after bludgeoning her sister to death. Apparently, she’s a very delicate bludgeoner. The dog likely killed the chicken (that’s implied heavily enough), but did he also attack Huldey? Is that why there’s so much blood? Or was she swallowed by the Moors, or her guilt? In contrast to the amount of residual blood on Huldey’s face, it was a bit messy.

To bring it full circle: cool premise, not my personal fave script, but well-executed. I walked out really impressed with Riot King and would absolutely see their next show.