Theatre at UBC launched their 2011/12 season with somewhat dark comedy ‘The Trial of Judith K’ which I saw in early October. Vancouver’s Sally Clark follows a modern business woman, Judith K., who finds herself accused of an unknown crime. The harder she delves into the ensuing bureaucratic nightmare, the more firmly she is bound by it, and the more obscure the reasons for her conviction become.
One morning she awoke to find two strange men, Clem (Mitchell Hookey) and Biff (Alex Pangburn) in her room. They were there to arrest her for a crime she had apparently committed, only neither of them, nor Judith, knew what crime it was. From that moment, her life takes on a surreal nature with visits to the court where she encounters a murderous floor sweeper (Scott Burton), the “disappeared” landlady (Emma Middleton – who also plays Mrs. Voight, Judith’s supervisor), a prostitute turned lawyer (Christina Bortolin – who also plays Judith’s secretary) and near the end an unforgiving nun (Melanie Reich). The story plays on in a bizarre structure to the very end.
The play was Directed by Tom Scholte and was performed at the Frederic Wood Theatre.
