Compared to film, theatre has a more difficult time producing bone chilling fear. That is why when a play succeeds in scaring an audience, it is very special. Katherine Koller’s Magpie is surrounded by uneasiness, mainly because the fear in her characters deeply resonates with audiences.

From the moment Magpie takes the stage, it is evident that something is off. Nan Fewchuk effectively portrays a tense, lonely woman who makes her living by providing lodgings to male criminals.

Because of her past, she has never gotten along with men. Adam Charbonneau plays Reggie, this week’s new transient, and soon finds out that he has met his match in the boisterous landlord. The intensity between the two swells to a thrilling conclusion. 

Directed by the University of Winnipeg’s own Hope McIntyre, Magpie is a great display of fluid transitioning in terms of dialogue, music and blocking. A few lines were fumbled and minute cues missed, but it did not seem to harm the apprehension that gives the play its power.

That apprehension is deeply rooted in the play’s origins. According to Koller’s website, Magpie was written in memory of a woman she knew who was slain in an Edmonton subway station. The play, which was first presented 10 years ago, has been immensely popular and is Koller’s third play to be presented at FemFest.

Cowboy Boots was presented at the 2003 festival and Abbey’s Place took the stage three years later.

Like Magpie, these two plays were first written by Koller as radio drama scripts. Before being made into a play, Magpie was aired on a CBC national broadcast. An audio clip is available online.

The tense relationship between Magpie and Reggie is even more distinct in McIntyre’s production because of the theatre conventions of lights and props, all of which were well organized by house manager Matthew Lagacé.

In an earlier issue of The Uniter, it says that Magpie is a show about “incarceration and redemption.” It is also promoted that the production is “a very twisted, black, powerful, interesting play.”

The intensity and eeriness is sure to attract audiences at this year’s FemFest.