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. 

First-Person: Playwright Rebecca Auerbach on her play Your Side, My Side, and the Truth (SummerWorks)

I resented the idea of putting my experiences on stage...
Now is the time to share
by Rebecca Auerbach

It's a funny experience putting one's life on stage. 

Your Side, My Side, and the Truth is based on true events that happened in my life; events that haunted me for years. Finally, in an effort to no longer be haunted by these memories, I decided to write down my experiences almost, I guess, as a form of exorcism. I had zero intention of turning these memories into theatre. 

Instead of freeing me, the exercise of writing turned into an unexpected journey, a process that evolved first into a solo piece before quickly morphing into the five character play we’re presenting this year at SummerWorks.