Shedding a Skin – Review of 2025 Nightwood Theatre Production

Shedding A Skin is a one-actor play about Myah (Vanessa Sears), a half-black young woman in London, England. Myah has a low-level office job where management sends a photographer to take pictures of her because head office needs proof of diversity in its staff. The employer has drawn 3 non-white workers including a cleaner who has been made to wear a suit for the photo shoot that is intended to improve the company’s image.
Myah loses it, as they say, and causes an altercation that results in her grabbing the camera and smashing it into pieces. She is fired of course and turns to her parents for help and support and receives none. She becomes homeless and seeks shelter.
Her rebellion against her employer’s attempt to use her to perpetuate a lie about inclusion is an act of bravery, resistance and desperation but Myah has problems that make self-assertion and survival difficult. She is uncertain of herself, of who she is and feels inferior and envious of self-assured co-workers. She has a forced smile and body movements that indicate how pathetic she is. She wants to be different and if she could shed a layer of skin, she might become the person she wants to be.
Vanessa Sears, in her monologue, tells us about Myah’s journey of self-discovery and change. Myah rents a room from Mildred, an elderly Jamaican woman and looks for a job as she leads a miserable life. Mildred is a self-assured immigrant who has found her niche in England and much of the plot develops around her influence on Myah and the latter’s development. Myah gains self-assurance from Mildred and in the end outgrows all her fears, awkwardness and weaknesses and psychological issues.
The play is performed on the stage of Buddies in Bad Times Theatre and the set by Jung-Hye Kim consists of a purple box in which we find Myah. The purple box is the prison in which she lives. There are seven screens on the back wall on which we see photographs and some videos of Myah’s life projected on them. We have shots of her apartment, the stairs, the street and other images of her life including a photo of Donald Trump.
The purple box in which we first see Myah changes color and she starts pushing the ceiling and the wall as the plot unfolds and her character changes. Myah will eventually get out of the box as she opens it out completely and in effect it disappears. The change in lighting by Lighting Designer Shawn Henry is impressive and it follows the development and progress towards thr liberation of Myah from herself.
The play ends in Piccadilly Circus with a view of the statue of Eros and a rainfall that drenches Myah. It may be a baptism into her new, liberated self or a cleansing of her past issues and a splendid new beginning.
Director Cherissa Richards controls every movement and vocal intonation of the performance to superb effect.
Kudos to Vanessa Sears for an extraordinary performance. She speaks with an expressive
English accent and mimics the other characters that she mentions expertly, especially Mildred’s Jamaican intonation. Her body language is especially effective in accentuating her neurotic character showing all her uncertainties and fears. A stunning performance.
In the end Myah does not shed a skin because she overcomes what made her uncomfortable in it. She finds herself.
Shedding A Skin by Amanda Wilkin in a Nightwood Theatre production in association with Buddies in Bad Times Theatre played until May 4, 2025, at the Buddies in Bad Times Theatre, 12 Alexander Street, Toronto, Ontario. www.buddiesinbadtimes.com

Vanessa Sears in Shedding as Skin. Photo: Jeremy Mimnagh‍