FRINGE 5 out of 5: Scorch an enthralling revelation

Scorch (Stage 28) is based on the true story of the British schoolgirl who was found guilty of posing as a Goth boy to get another teenage girl into bed. She was charged and went to prison. This event, chronicled in Britain but largely unknown here, is the obvious basis for this play – but the remarkable production goes far beyond a documentary-style presentation of salacious newspaper reports.

The play, jointly from Edmonton’s Blarney and Bustle & Beast production entities, features an intimate and confessional performance from Julie NIUBOI Ferguson, billed as a trans, non-binary performance artist.

The involving experience, staged in the tiny Venue 28, uses blaring sound effects and instant lighting changes to great effect. It’s staged as if we were all at some kind of LGBTQ meeting. Two large humanoid plastic figures with internal illumination are arranged on the stage. (Director: Brenley Charkow).

Ferguson plays Kes, a sexually-confused young girl trying to cope with the fact that she feels more like her brother than a “little sister.” She tries to pee (unsuccessfully) standing up like her older brother. She wants to wear different clothes and identifies with male characters in video games. She doesn’t just adore Ryan Gosling – she wants to “be” Ryan Gosling. Kes has no understanding of what is happening to her and wonders if, “…liking girls makes me into a ho-mo?” Nevertheless, she loves life.

“It’s awesome,” she tells us exuberantly, “I just want to talk about how happy I am.”

As a teen, Kes meets another girl (known as Juels) online and begins a friendship that evolves into a sexual relationship.

“We didn’t know what we were doing,” she admits, but the two were truly in love. They were “soul mates.” One day Juels no longer takes her phone calls and a little later, a letter arrives at her parents’ home charging her with “sexual assault through penetration.” (The two believed they really performed the sex act). The one-time spirited and passionate kid is tried and sentenced to prison (mirroring the results of the British story).

“I miss her so,” she wails and when words can no longer express her inner confusion and world of hurt, this remarkable performer breaks into a heartrending dance.

Kes will not talk about the prison experience but, with the help of the rainbow of participants in the meeting (“So much more fun than a meeting of Lezzies…”), she painfully finds her way back.

With the solid basis of Stacey Gregg’s singular script, Ferguson manages to go deep inside the quirks and mood changes of the teen mind to take dramatic measure of the turmoil within. And she breaks our hearts when the bewildered boy-girl views her shattered tale of love and observes, “I flew too high and fell back scorched.”

5 out of 5