‘roadkill” is a fantastic theatrical experience, one you’re unlikely to forget. It also happens to be the feel-bad show of the year.
The heavy subject — sex trafficking — is disturbing enough. But director Cora Bissett goes further with an immersive production that pushes the horror right up into our face.
Bissett drew from accounts of actual young women to create Mary, a 14-year-old (played by a young-looking Mercy Ojelade, 30) who flies from Nigeria to New York to make a new life: go to school, learn a trade. She’s chaperoned by Martha (Adura Onashile), a fellow Nigerian in her late 20s who brings her to a house in Brooklyn.
There the dream ends: Mary is raped by the sinister Djall (John Kazek), who then pimps her out.
This would be harsh enough on its own, but Bissett amplifies the impact of “Roadkill” by making it painfully intimate. A performance holds just 25 theatergoers, each one turned into a powerless witness to Mary’s degradation.
The show starts as soon as the audience boards a small bus outside Brooklyn’s St. Ann’s Warehouse.
Mary and Martha are seated among us. The younger one is excited to discover her new home, and happily chats up the other passengers. The production, which originated in Scotland, is customized for each city where it plays, and during this segment Stef Smith’s script is largely improvised.
“Do you have a car?” Mary asks a man near her. “I’m going to get a car when I’m rich!”
Within 10 minutes she’s made friends with everybody on the bus. This is one of the most effective elements in Bissett’s staging because we get a glimpse of Mary’s hopes and her naive enthusiasm.
Everybody disembarks at a brownstone in Clinton Hill. The action takes place in three rooms, each fairly small — we are inches from Mary, and watch in shock as she screams and cries.
In an effort to avoid exploitation, Bissett doesn’t directly show sex. Instead, the superbly crafted production suggests it via sound effects and animated projections, including one of a cartoon girl torn apart by wolves.
The single most horrifying part of the evening may well be the “john reports,” in which we hear recordings of clients who rate, in graphic detail, their experiences with Mary as if they were on Yelp.
Among the most intriguing aspects of the show is the relationship between the two women. Martha is herself a victim but collaborates with Djall to survive. She even proposes a mutual “pact of protection” to Mary so she can better control her.
“Roadkill” is brutal because the exploitation of human beings is brutal. You won’t leave unscathed.