Lauren feels heavy inside. Maybe it’s something like anxiety. Maybe it’s something like rage. Yet her life looks perfect from the outside. Good job (she’s an investigative journalist). Great home life: a loving husband, children. She’s in good health. She has enough money. So how has she found herself walking down a badly lit corridor in CAMH, Toronto’s mental health hospital, if not because some of all that perfectness isn’t quite right?

Hannah Moscovitch‘s ‘Red Like Fruit’ is a piece of theatrical magic. Lauren (Michelle Monteith) has asked Luke to narrate her investigation of an alleged incident of domestic violence. Lauren’s of medium height, composed, controlled, well-dressed, a consummate professional who appears comfortable in her own skin. Luke (David Patrick Flemming) is tall, wholesomely handsome, falling over himself to make sure that his delivery of Lauren’s words properly honours her truth.

Lauren’s tale is also one of self-discovery. The incident she’s investigating involves a high profile, highly esteemed city councillor accused of slapping his girlfriend. Luke describes her interviews with those involved: content and tone, silence and unspoken words. Amidst her interviews, Lauren meets a colleague for lunch who’s reeling amidst recent #MeToo revelations. Sitting back down in front of her laptop, she unwillingly confronts her own traumatic past and the age-old question that haunts so many victims of sexual assault: could she have prevented it?

Kaitlin Hickey‘s set puts Lauren on a marvellously metaphorical pedestal. Stark precision lighting (Alison Crosby) and an eerily ordinary soundscape magnify the injustices. Christian Barry‘s direction is contained, controlled and majestically relentless. The timing of the final discussion – is it really right that Luke tells Lauren’s story? – is pitch perfect.

This script is the spiky, incisive, brilliant love child of #MeToo and the smart reportage of Laura Bates and Mary Ann Seighart but it never feels didactic. Instead, it feels like the story of every twenty-first century Western woman has finally, magnificently, been transported to the stage. Beware: it might make you weep with rage.

‘Red Like Fruit‘ is at Traverse Theatre – Traverse 2 until Sun 24 Aug 2025 at 13:30