The
Neighbours is a dramatic play by Canadian playwright Nicolas Billon, who also wrote “
The Butcher” which remains one of the most intense and exciting performances of live theatre that we have ever experienced. We first came across Billon’s writing when we watched the 2014 movie
Elephant Song. Billon presents interesting characters that gradually reveal their true selves, be it their secret identities or hidden agendas, and mysterious plots that that are initially disorienting with information slowly being fed to the audience a bit at a time until all becomes clear. Each of the three Billon works that we’ve watched dealt with a serious theme—genocide in The Butcher, mental health in Elephant Song and complicity in The Neighbours.
The Neighbours is set in the suburban neighbourhood of Stanley Court as cleverly illustrated by the set design. The houses on the court are depicted by numbered rectangles on the stage floor while two sets of sparse furnishings on either side of the stage represented the home of longtime residents Denise and Simon on the right along with their daughter Sophie who is coming home from college to visit, and Mr. Au Yeung Wei on the left. Most of the play focuses on Denise and Simon as they discuss recent events.
What starts off as banal conversation about summer barbeques and idle gossip about their neighbours takes a darker turn when they reveal that something shocking and evil has happened at the house across from them. This house is lit up on the stage floor and suddenly the broken fragments of houses dangling from above the stage make sense. They represent the hidden horrors that had been lurking in the seemingly quiet and peaceful suburban neighbourhood, foreshadowing that all was not well.
As Denise and Simon recall the traumatic discovery, discussions turn to whether or not they should have sensed that something was wrong and somehow intervened. The couple break the fourth wall to address the audience, as if trying to convince us that they are good people and definitely would have helped had they known. There is some debate over the fine line between caring enough to form communal and neighbourly bonds versus “minding our own business” to respect people’s privacy. Did they ignore warning signs so as not to get involved? Are they in any way complicit by choosing to turn a blind eye? I am reminded of a line from the Robert Frost poem “Mending Fences” which states “Good walls make good neighbours”.
While Simon tries a bit too hard to prove that he is a “good man” and initially comes across as jovial and good natured, his throwaway comments show signs of misogyny, homophobia and racism including remarks directed at their Chinese neighbour Mr. Au Yeung Wei who Simon dismissively nicknames “Zoom Zoom”. Throughout most of the play, Mr. Au sits quietly in an armchair in his own home, reading a book and drinking tea from a pink teapot that we learn later holds significance both for him and for Sophie. His silent presence creates a slightly distracting unease and tension for the audience as we glance at him occasionally wondering how he would contribute to the plot. Perhaps that was his purpose, to make us question whether there was more to the story that Denise and Simon were spinning. This character acts as a physical reminder of other voices and perspectives that Denise and Simon chose not to acknowledge in their complacent acts of willful blindness.
While not as intense as his other two works, Nicolas Billon has once again created a thought-provoking play that held our attention from start to finish. Curiously, The Neighbours had its world premiere in Tokyo, Japan in 2019 instead of Canada. Perhaps that is why when we inspected the book that Mr. Au was reading throughout the play, it turned out to be “Remains of the Day” by Japanese author Kazuo Ishiguro. Also on his table was the pink teapot and another major prop, a fake cover of the Canadian Walrus magazine with the headline referencing the horrific event driving the plot of the play.
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