Review: Your Side, My Side, and the Truth (SummerWorks)

More than admiration required

by Christian Baines

Rebecca Auerbach’s Your Side, My Side, and the Truth is an easy work to admire. It tackles the difficult subject of how we respond when someone dies; you have to admire Auerbach’s bold frankness, both as playwright and lead, playing herself. You also have to admire her bravery, and her willingness to dramatize these events, drawn as they are, from her own life. 

The central plot, following Auerbach’s relationship, is quite compelling. Unfortunately, there’s just not enough on which to hang a full play, not even in this lean, one-act format. As a result, the show’s focus shifts between the two leads (Jeff Gladstone portrays the other half of the pair) and a trio of supporting characters, whose links to the primary story are, at best, tenuous. While it can be assumed these are real figures from Auerbach’s life, they bring little to the play from a dramatic standpoint. 

Unsurprisingly, the story takes place within a fairly familiar Toronto setting, with a smattering of in-jokes, topical references, lazy patio afternoons and wild, drug-fuelled nights of sex and clubbing. So there are many entertaining moments to be had. But it never quite gels as a whole, particularly when the focus shifts away from the side of the story closest to its teller’s heart.

Your Side, My Side and the Truth plays at Scotiabank Studio until August 19.