Witness for the Persecution: Sky Gilbert on trial

15 Feb 2025.

by Drew Rowsome -photos by Ryan Russell

"A friend of mine was going to see Witness for the Prosecution at Shaw and I told her it was my favorite movie in all the world," says playwright Sky Gilbert (My Little Brony: The Musical, Greg's Cookies, Inside, Kink Observed, Who's Afraid of Titus?, I Cook, He Does the Dishes, Sad Old Faggot, It's All Tru, The Terrible Parents, To Myself at 28, My Dinner with Casey Donovan, A Few Brittle Leaves, Dancing Queen, Hackerlove, The Situationists). "When I got off the phone with her, the idea started percolating. What about if I stole the plot but created a play about my mother around it. And Witness for the Persecution just happened." The press release says, "Witness for the Persecution is more than just a camp, entertaining take on the famous courtroom-drama film of a very similar name starring Marlene Dietrich and Charles Laughton, directed by Billy Wilder. It is a dark and enthralling experiment in melding performance art and theatre, in which Sky Gilbert (former artistic director of Buddies in Bad Times Theatre, and one of Canada’s most controversial artistic forces) invites his own mother to the witness stand to defend him." 

But what has Gilbert been accused of? "A lot of things," says Gilbert. "Aids Denier. Evil Slut. Hater. Whatever. I get accused of stuff all the time because I’m a proud drag queen slut and I am honest about all that, and honest when I express my views, and sometimes people don’t agree. In the past they just disagreed, sometimes in print, now they try and cancel you online. I’m not online at all, no social media for me, so those crazies can say what they want." Gilbert has never been afraid to get personal and "I talk about my own alcoholism and promiscuity in the play and about all my bad traits—arrogance, defensiveness, general old man crankiness, and lots of other stuff too. I talk to the audience up close, it’s a small venue, about what’s wrong with me, in real time. It’s like chatting with a friend." And what happens if he's found guilty? "In the context of the play I am taking what my mother says very seriously, as let’s say, opposed to the judgements of social media. What she says goes, she knows me, she is my mother and I depend on her to help me decide, in my own mind, if my life has been worthy."

Gilbert's complicated relationship with his mother is well documented. "I’ve written so many things about my mother," he says, "including Pat and Skee at Aquarius in 2022 and a book The Mommiad, what was there left to say? I realized I hadn’t written about emotional incest. That’s what this play is about. She loved everything I did for years. Even the stuff about her, even if it was blatantly about her, and not completely complimentary, she loved it. And she was not stupid. In later life she got tired of coming to my openings because she said ‘Those openings are all about you! I feel like a piece of furniture, and all your sucky friends come up to me and try and curry favour. Where am I in all this?’ With that remark, as with so many, she revealed herself as not being very motherly."

Which makes her ideal to be incarnated by the great  Elley-Ray Hennessy (Who's Afraid of Titus?, My Dinner with Casey Donovan, Gash!) by way of Marlene Dietrich. Hennessy is a formidable force on stage but she and Gilbert are old friends and colleagues and he says, "I can steal scenes too. That kind of competition makes for grand theatre." Directing is another old friend and colleague, Ed Roy (The Terrible Parents, A Few Brittle Leaves, His Greatness). "Ed has directed countless plays of mine and his own and others, and he is a peerless director," says Gilbert. "Elley and I have worked together many times also, she got a Dora nomination for playing Ayn Rand in my play The Emotionalists. I have complete faith in her unerring instincts. When it comes to audiences, the ones who are old enough will know that I’m addicted to confessing, I’m a confessor, a guilty Catholic living in a guilty Protestant’s body."

The trio all hail from what is often seen as a golden age in queer theatre. "No," says Gilbert shutting down that train of questioning. "The past is the past. The future is the future. I hope that artistic directors all over town are not afraid of brilliance as I wasn’t, it was the only thing really I did right. So many artistic directors are afraid that the directors and writers they hire will be more talented than they are. So they program mediocrity. It’s an illness, really." Gilbert is relying on Hennessey's brilliance to produce a fundraiser for the production. "Elley came up with it. It’s going to be a fab fundraiser, crazy, wild," is all he says, but fortunately the press release expands considerably, "Witness This! will whisk you into the daring world of Witness for the Persecution. With music, dance, puppetry, acrobatics and more, it’s not just a performance; it’s an exploration of everything that makes us alive. There will be secrets you’ll uncover, passions you’ll never forget, and a world of luxurious indulgence and otherworldly fantasy you’ll never want to leave. You’ll laugh, you’ll gasp, you’ll wonder if you’ve just entered a dream or a nightmare—but one thing’s for sure: this is a night that will haunt your heart forever."

Witness for the Prosecution is an important element in Agatha Christie's legacy. Gilbert is having none of it, "Ugh. Legacy. Ugh. I don’t think about it. I’m here now, that’s all that really matters to me or anyone else when it comes to themselves." Witness for the Prosecution is one of my favourite films as well and, when I admit that the twist surprises me every time, Gilbert is pleased I am so gullible. He has a request of those coming to watch his trial, "Don’t watch the film right before you see the show. Then you might forget what happens in the movie, which will help you enjoy the play."