The Death of Reality by Nick Poulos

Often times a performance will have one big message. Something for the entire audience to take away. When two people take away different things however, it creates a brilliant conversation. My Love Lies Frozen in the Ice by Dead Rabbits Theatre manages to do just that, create a performance that leaves the audience with different ideas of exactly what it all means.

The actors stand at the front of the stage with their instruments and begin welcoming the audience as they enter the theatre. Myself and my friends sat in the front row and got to interact with the actors for a bit, as they recognized us from when they plugged their show to us on the street. My Love follows the story of Matilda Andre, sister to Solomon Andre, the first person to attempt to fly to the north pole in a helium balloon. Matilda quickly falls in love with Solomon’s assistant Nills, and the two plan to wed. However, on the takeoff day Solomon informs Matilda that won’t be coming with them because it is too dangerous of an expedition. Matilda stays behind, heartbroken as she watches the balloon fly away. But while it disappears over the mountain for the rest of the audience, it never disappears for her.

Matilda falls into a hospital ward, being treated for insanity as she claims that she can still see Nills and Solomon. She tries to give them advice to stay alive and even dreams of rescuing them herself, until the doctors administer shock therapy on her. It is here that the two different paths diverge. I believe that the shock therapy takes away Matilda’s visions of her love, which ultimately kills her spirit, hope, and her. My friend Dillon who saw the show with me, believes that Matilda was in denial, and the shock therapy forced her to see the truth. This disagreement is not a bad thing in my opinion, in fact, it only makes the story richer. It leaves us continuing to talk about the performance after it has ended, going back and forth on drawing moments from the show to support our arguments.

My Love Lies Frozen in the Ice leaves me questioning the very ethics of reality itself. To me, Matilda created her own reality. One where she could save her brother and her fiancé from their almost guaranteed demise. That reality, even though it was a lie, is what kept her alive. The doctors perceived this reality as insanity because it clashed with their own reality, the reality that the explorers were deceased. They tried to destroy Matilda’s reality and bring her back to their own, but in the end, they only succeeded in destroying Matilda herself. So what is the right call here? Should we kill the only hope that people have in this world by trying to get them to be “normal”? I don’t know if there is universally correct decision, I think it’s up to you to see the performance and decide for yourself.