The cracks in the household at the centre of “The Roof Is Leaking,” Davinder Malhi and Sanskruti Marathe’s family drama now running at the Berkeley Street Upstairs Theatre, are not so metaphorical.
They’re evident even before the lights dim at the start of this 90-minute play, with cracks covering the walls of Jackie Chau’s domestic set, and fissures on the floor that look like the result of an earthquake. Then, in the first scene, a leak springs from the roof of the family home in Brampton, Ont.
This house is crumbling. And it’s only a harbinger of what’s to come.
When Jaspinder’s (Sarena Parmar, excellent) father unexpectedly dies, she and her family must come to terms with his complicated legacy, their relationships with each other and the secrets they each harbour.
The eldest of three siblings, Jaspinder continually lives in the shadow of her younger sister, Meena (Tia Sandhu), an accomplished lawyer who moved away from home and is now set to wed her boyfriend of three months.
Their brother, Gurvir (Harry Gill), spends most of his days detached from the rest of his family, cooped up in his bedroom. After the death of his father, he’s unexpectedly thrust into the role of “man of the house.”
But “The Roof Is Leaking” is really focused on the mother of these three adult children, Sandeep (Dharini Woollcombe, in a moving performance), who unexpectedly feels liberated after her husband’s death. She comes to realize how much of her life was defined by his — how she was continually in his orbit, an outlet for his anger.
In one of the play’s most aching moments, Sandeep reveals how over her decades-long marriage, her sense of identity has slowly been eroded. At a recent visit to a clothing store, she recalled how she couldn’t even name her favourite colour when asked by a clerk.
“On my way home, I started asking myself more questions. What’s your favourite song? I don’t know. What do you want to eat? I don’t know,” she recounts. “By 50 years old, a woman should know these things. I don’t want to go to the grave and not have a favourite colour.”
The central tension of the play is between Sandeep and her children — particularly Jaspinder, who doesn’t want her mother to taint her memories of her father. Sandeep, however, only wants Jaspinder and her siblings to recognize her sacrifice.
Malhi and Marathe do a formidable job of developing each of their characters equally, even if it means that Sandeep’s story is somewhat shrouded for the first half of the play.
Surrounding Jaspinder’s immediate family are also her more extended relatives: Sukhminder (Harpreet Sehmbi), her divorced aunt, and her more conservative Chacha (Sarabjeet Arora) and Chachi (Kiran Kaur), along with Jaspinder’s young cousin Munni (Harit Sohal).
The play’s ending could benefit from further development. Right now, a mock trial in which Sandeep litigates her perspective in front of her family feels forced — and resolves almost too neatly.
That the show is also surprisingly funny works in its favour, helping its more serious — and darker — themes to go down easier. But some of the comedy feels misplaced and, at times, overly broad, particularly for Meena.
Still, director Ash Knight’s production is always grounded, mapping the complicated dynamics of this family with care and detail. Simran Kapoor’s lighting designs isolate various characters in this ensemble play, turning the theatre’s large stage into an intimate, familial space. And Gurpreet Chana’s sound designs serve as a constant reminder of the precarious state of Jaspinder’s house. The production demonstrates that, much like the secrets and stories at the centre of this family, a crack and a leak left to fester can ultimately lead to a catastrophe.
