The title Meeting may conjure images of dull agendas and fluorescent-lit boardrooms, but director Chelsea Haberlin and playwright Katherine Gauthier deliver something far more intimate and unsettling with their latest ITSAZOO and Pacific Theatre production.
Set and performed in a modest church activity room, the play follows five people in a support group for codependency, particularly around sexuality, love and identity. As they share their stories, layers of trauma, vulnerability, rage and contradiction emerge, shifting the atmosphere into one of raw tension.
The energy was palpable the moment I entered the room. The air felt colder and the chairs, arranged in a tight circle, dissolved any boundary between performer and audience, creating a sense of fragile intimacy and upending conventional theatrical norms. Soft, vintage ambient music played in the background, heightening the emotional unease. To my left, pool noodles rested oddly on a shelf; to my right, a small whiteboard hung on the wall, familiar objects that added an unexpected layer of mystery.
The realism of the setting extended to the way the performers entered the scene. There was nothing flashy. Just people arriving in regular clothes, walking into what felt like an actual support group session. The physical closeness between actors and audience heightened the sense of immediacy and presence. Larisse Campbell, an incoming second-year MFA directing student in UBC’s department of theatre and film said “You’re very close to the actors. So, it’s almost as if you are on their shoulder, looking in at them.” Campbell is collaborating with ITSAZOO and Pacific Theatre to conduct research on trauma-informed responses and practices within the context of rehearsal, taking Meeting as a case study.
The production embraced a naturalistic style that drew the audience in so completely, it was easy to lose sight of the fact that it was a staged performance. The absence of theatrical glamour allowed the characters’ stories to take centre stage, making their words and emotions hit that much harder.
As co-artistic producer, and assistant director Paige Louter said, “having our amazing playwright, Kat Gauthier, in the room with us was a really great resource, because very little in the play is a total fiction. A lot of it is a composite or taken from a real observation that she had. I think a lot of the work of being truthful is trusting the script, and knowing that that research is there and that these are real human stories.”
At first, the play's dialogue felt light, even comedic. One character used quirky animal facts to explore another’s views on monogamy, disarming the audience with humour. But this comfort quickly unravels through bursts of painful honesty, shouting matches and even physical confrontation. In one powerful scene, the group leader proposes a role-play exercise that spirals into a personal crisis as she’s overwhelmed by her own buried trauma. It’s a reminder that even those who seem in control can be just as vulnerable, just as haunted.
Trauma lies at the heart of Meeting, not only as a thematic element but as an emotional force that shapes both performance and audience experience. Campbell’s research into the production’s trauma-informed theatre practices explores how actors navigate traumatic material in their roles and how productions can responsibly support audiences in the aftermath.
While Meeting is, as Campbell described, “tough and hard material — visceral and intense,” she emphasized that the production creates space for essential conversations. The fictionalized setting of the theatre allows audience members to gather as a community, providing a safe environment for shared reflection and dialogue around some of life’s most difficult topics, such as personal trauma, shame and emotional vulnerability. It is this capacity to foster connection and conversation that underscores the significance of the production.
Through this research, Campbell hopes her findings can help “to create a bit of a little tool kit for something that other productions or future researchers can go further with.”
What stands out most about Meeting is its refusal to wrap things up neatly — Louter said, “I don't think the play has all the answers.” Unlike many stories centred around therapy or healing, there was no illusion that a single meeting could fix everything. As Louter pointed out, “the central question of the play is how do we heal,” inviting the audience to reflect deeply rather than offering straightforward answers.
In fact, some characters explicitly stated they wouldn’t be coming back. Others expressed discomfort with certain group members returning. This ambiguous ending may have felt unresolved on the surface, but it carried a deeper message: healing isn’t linear, and not everyone finds peace in the same place or at the same pace.
Rather than focus on resolution, the production invites viewers to pay attention to what the meeting revealed. Through dialogue, each character’s personality, pain and perspective unfolded. The play doesn’t offer easy answers or therapeutic breakthroughs. Instead, it suggests that the act of speaking, of sharing space and story, has its own value, even when the outcome is messy or inconclusive.
Recognizing that the production’s dense and emotionally charged content can leave audiences with lingering questions, a post-show “Talk Forward” segment was included. This offered an opportunity for the audience to engage directly with an expert on the play’s themes in an open discussion.
“[It] is a chance for the audience to pose [or receive] questions — [giving them] a chance to sort of do a little bit of digesting of some of the challenges of the play,” Louter explained.
Meeting is an invitation to listen with compassion, to see people beyond their addictions or identities and to understand that healing sometimes begins with simply being heard. It’s not a perfect, polished story, and that’s what makes it so effective.
Campbell explained that her research in the production “is not really about having a quantitative goal in mind. It is really to look at the overall picture,” including observing how people respond to trauma, analyzing those responses and considering the emotional reactions that arise. Her goal is to uncover insights that can inform not only theatre productions but also other artistic works that engage with trauma and the complexities of lived experience. In this way, Meeting becomes more than a performance. It serves as a catalyst for empathy, dialogue and deeper understanding both on and off the stage.
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