Scorched begins with a comedic monologue and ends with the audience in tears.

The play moved easily from comedy to tragedy, hatred to hope, anger to acceptance and back again.

Wajdi Mouawad’s play, produced by Theatre Inconnu, tells the story of a brother and sister who, in order to claim their mother’s inheritance, must deliver two letters: one to a father they thought was dead, and one to a brother they didn’t know they had.

Their discovery of their mother’s past is raw and deeply horrifying. The play examines the consequences of violence, torture, rape and incest.

Though the story is terribly powerful, its presentation was slightly problematic. Given the choice between a realistic sentence and three lyrical ones, the characters unerringly choose the latter. On the strength of their dialogue, each character seems like a poetic genius.

The wordiness of the play became troublesome during the performance. Some actors struggled with their lines.

The pacing also slowed during the middle of the three-hour play. It did quicken, though, as the story geared up to its disturbing final twist.

The cast displayed a range of ability. Casey Austin, as Nawal, gave a memorable performance in a particularly difficult role. This character is typically played by three actors, ages from 14 to 65. Austin was able to accomplish this believably, moving from an optimistic teenager to a stoic, hard woman without resorting to stereotype.

Paddy Crawford, as Alphonse, brought a very human level of humour to the performance that was coloured, at times, with a bewildered sadness.

Michael Shewchuck, who we know from previous performances, is particularly talented but was underused here.

For the first act we see little other than hurt rage. While this does stem from the script, there were places where a change in tone would have been more compelling.

The original play was praised for its slick, cinematic production values. This was where Theatre Inconnu’s production most obviously fell short.

The lighting was workmanlike, but in no way artistic. The set changes were covered with voice-over dialogue. This might have been a choice to quicken the pacing but, at certain points, the lines were lost under the scraping of mime boxes dragged across the stage. Music may have been a better choice.

On the topic of music, there is little to say. The fantastic Middle-Eastern score was encouraging, but the curtain went up and a third of the way into the first act and there had not been a peep from the speakers.

Then, a sharp loud noise akin to the strings in Psycho blared loudly enough to send students into fits of giggles.

This startling sound effect, along with a fellow blast of strings later in the play, were the only landmarks in a deserted soundscape.

Overall, Theatre Inconnu’s production was an ambitious attempt and contained some impressive successes and touching moments.