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by Christina Anderson, directed by Mumbi Tindyebwa Otu

Obsidian Theatre, Soulpepper Theatre & Nightwood Theatre, Young Centre, Toronto

April 30–May 17, 2026

Stokes: “Creation is hard”

Three theatre companies have joined forces to present the Canadian premiere of How to Catch Creation. The play by Christina Anderson was heaped with critical praise on its world premiere in Chicago in 2019, but judging from the current production it’s very difficult to understand what critics there found so praiseworthy. Anderson does deserve credit for writing a play foregrounding the lives of six Black artists and intellectuals. However, the play itself has deficiencies in plot and character portrayal. The Obsidian-Soulpepper-Nightwood production features a bizarre design, and not all of the cast can master Anderson’s often artificial-sounding dialogue.

The action is set, as Anderson puts it, in “a place that resembles San Francisco and the surrounding areas” and occurs in two time periods – 2014 and 1966. We first meet best friends Griffin and Tami in 2014. It’s been less than a year since Griffin has been out of prison after serving 25 years before being exonerated for the kidnap and murder he always maintained he did not commit. What he wants most now is to have a child. Tami is completely against the project. She thinks Griffin is not fully aware of how much time and trouble it is to raise a child.

Meanwhile, also in 2014, Stokes is feeling frustrated with his painting. He has received his 13th rejection notice from a college painting programme. His girlfriend Riley, who is a lesbian, decides to go to the director of the most recent arts programme to reject Stokes and ask what Stokes is doing wrong to get rejected so many times. The director of this latest programme happens to be Tami. Though it is totally against protocol for her to say anything to a rejected applicant, much less the girlfriend of a rejected applicant, she tells Riley cryptically that Stokes needs to “Let go”. Tami, also a lesbian, is irresistibly attracted to Riley.

At a book sale, Stokes has come across novels by G.K. Marche (pronounced “mar-SHAY”), a queer Black female writer from the 1960s who has now suck into obscurity. He can’t stop reading her and one day, he bumps into Griffin in the park and discovers that Griffin just happens to have read every word Marche has written which has caused him to become an ardent feminist.

Scenes in 2024 are mingled with scenes set in 1966 where we meet G.K. Mache herself and her partner Natalie. Patterns in the lives of those in 2024 sometimes mirror those of Marche and Natalie, especially when both Riley and Natalie unexpectedly find themselves pregnant. It would be great to say that Anderson brings the tale of all three couples to a satisfactory conclusion, but unfortunately, she leaves the difficulties of Stokes and Riley unresolved at the end. Indeed, the entire plot is so dependent on coincidence and chance that it is difficult to engage with either the story and the characters.

Anderson is so focussed on getting the pieces of her puzzle in the right place she forgets to give us the background we need to understand the characters and their actions. Take Griffin. We hear many times that he spent 25 years in prison for a crime he did not commit. Anderson shows that Griffin is afraid of talking to a lawyer because lawyers are part of the ‘”system”, yet lawyers were obviously needed to exonerate Griffin of the crime. One also has to wonder why Griffin does not consider suing the State for wrongful imprisonment.

Other than this, Anderson has Griffin display no effects of such a long incarceration. Mental issues and problems fitting back into society would be normal, but Anderson shows none of that. We learn that the crime Griffin did not commit was kidnap and murder. Why does Anderson not explain how Griffin came to be involved in such a thing. Why was he found guilty? How was he found innocent? A writer can hardly bring up a crime like that and not make us wonder what happened. Besides this, we hear that Griffin never went to college. Yet, Anderson shows him giving a lecture to students about architecture. What happened that that could even be possible?

Take Riley. When she visits Tami she says she comes on behalf of her boyfriend. She also tells Tami she is a lesbian. So what kind of relationship do Riley and Stokes actually have. The word “bisexual” is never used. Is Stokes aware of Riley’s sexuality or not? And, if so, how are they boyfriend and girlfriend? When Stokes realizes that Riley has been sleeping with Tami, he says Riley has been “cheating” on him with Tami. Again, we wonder what their relationship is, but Anderson gives us no clues whatsoever.

The point of Anderson’s play is also confused. The Soulpepper website says the play shows how “These four lives intertwine in the most unexpected ways, when they uncover the work of a Black queer feminist writer from the 1960s”. This implies a causal relation between discovering the work of G.K. Marche and what happens to the four characters. This is not entirely true. Griffin has read Marche’s complete works while in prison. Stokes starts reading Marche and can’t stop. Tami already knows about Marche, but Riley is not interested in Marche at all.

Reading Marche has made Stokes want to write a novel. Stokes’s direct influence has given Griffin a project to work on, i.e. writing his memoirs. Marche, however, has no influence on Tami or Riley. It is their affair that sparks creativity in both of them, not Marche. Even in Marche’s own life, we see that Natalie only becomes creative when she leaves Marche. The strange conclusion is that the two people on whom the Black queer writer has had the greatest positive influence is the two straight men in the play, Griffin and Stokes. Is that really what Anderson intended? If so, it means that the group’s discovering Marche actually has far less impact on the four characters than the play suggests it has.

And as for Marche, Anderson gives us only a short poem of hers as any sample of her work. Anderson mentions in the play that Black men rarely read works by Black women. Thus, we have to wonder what is it exactly about Marche’s writing that can transform a Black man in prison like Griffin into a feminist? What is it about Marche’s writing that can make a man like Stokes want to read every book by her he can get his hands on? Anderson gives us no answer to this question, one which is central to understanding how one person’s art can influence another person which is also a central question of the play.

The characters in How to Catch Creation suffer in two ways. One is Anderson’s lack of clarity about the nature of their relationships. The other is Anderson’s use of them as puppets to fulfil the pattern of the plot she has devised rather than to make it seem, as dramatist should, that characters are determining their own fate. On top of that, Anderson often gives the characters dialogue that sounds like excerpts of academic papers rather than anything that could pass for ordinary conversation.

Given these difficulties, it is surprising that the actors do as well as they do. The two best in coping with the situation are Daren A. Herbert as Griffin and Amanda Cordner as Tami. As per Anderson’s dialogue, Herbert makes Griffin appear easy-going and light-hearted, not at all what one might expect from a man who has been in prison for 25 years. Herbert only shows how Griffin’s past comes to weigh on him when he finds he can’t phone a lawyer or when he fails at every step when assessed to determine if he can be a suitable father. In the latter situation, Herbert depicts the stages of Griffin’s increasing depression and desperation.

Cordner is excellent in making Tami a believable character, even if Tami’s final statement in the play seems to come out of nowhere. Cordner makes Tami a no-nonsense pessimist to counter Griffin’s optimism, and a supportive friend when all his attempts to have a child come to nothing. Cordner subtly indicates how Tami, as director of a conservatory painting programme, shifts Tami’s interest in Riley from professional dismissal to personal interest.

Danté Prince makes Stokes a kind-hearted character who becomes a good friend to Griffin even as his relationship with Riley crumbles. Germaine Konji has the difficulty of not being able to make us believe anything Riley says. Partially, this is because Konji speaks at lower volume than do the other actors. Partially, it is because Anderson’s dialogue for Riley is so affected with computer and academic arts jargon that it wouldn’t sound natural in anyone’s conversation.

Shakura Dickson indicates early on that Natalie’s having a relationship with a writer like G.K. Marche is not easy. Dickson lends a tone of insecurity to everything Natalie says. When, however, Marche has left her, Dickson shows that a new self-confidence animates Natalie. Even though G.K. Marche is the artistic centre of Anderson’s play, Anderson strangely gives her very little of interest to say except variations on “Don’t bother me. I’m working”. When we meet Marche in 2014, Anderson has changed her into a sort of wise woman and her impatient side is gone. This would be an ideal challenge for Khadijah Roberts-Abdullah who plays Marche except that she does not take advantage of it. Except for putting on a grey wig, Roberts-Abdullah disappointingly does nothing either in voice or in movement to indicate that the Marche of 2014 is 40 years older than the Marche of 1966.

Teresa Przybylski has created one of the oddest sets seen at Soulpepper for the show. It consists of two sculptures out of red-painted pipes that look like fragments of a geodesic dome or two off-kilter jungle gyms too dangerous for children. After every scene the actors move these two sculptures into new configurations, but never do they help to signify the place where the action is occurring. Above all this a is a slanted oval containing various LED lighting rods. Lighting designer Andre du Toit has them change colour from scene to scene and even within scenes, but they never seem to enhance the atmosphere in any meaningful way.

In short, neither the play nor the production of How to Catch Creation is satisfying. Even when we arrive at the ending, we might well wonder why it took more than two hours to get there. All three companies have chosen better plays to produce and have created better productions. I am certain they can do so again.

Christopher Hoile

Photos: Daren A. Herbert as Griffin and Amanda Cordner as Tami; Shakura Dickson as Natalie and Khadijah Roberts-Abdullah as G.K. Marche; Danté Prince as Stokes and Daren A. Herbert as Griffin; Germaine Konji as Riley and Amanda Cordner as Tami. © 2026 Dahlia Katz.

For tickets visit: www.soulpepper.ca.