Compelling doubt lingers in RMTC's 23.5 Hours

American playwright Carey Crim's 23.5 Hours, seeing its Canadian premiere at the Royal MTC Warehouse, opens with a string of expletives from Bruce (Arne MacPherson)as he steps into a pile of dog droppings on his way into the home of his friends Tom (Jonathan Watton) and Leigh (Amanda Lisman).

Tom, Leigh, Bruce and his wife Jayne (Lisa Norton) are celebrating a successful performance of Romeo and Juliet that Tom has directed at the high school where he's a popular drama teacher.

And then Bruce steps in dog poop. Suggesting, perhaps, that just when everything seems to be going well in life, things can very suddenly become very messy.

And that's the thrust of 23.5 Hours. In short order, we discover Tom has been accused of having a sexual relationship with one of his students. From there, Crim's play jumps forward in timeto focus on the aftermath of the accusation and the effect a loss of trust has on Tom, his family and his friends.

The point here isn't so much a "did he or didn't he" question although that's a considerable grey area in Crim's compelling piece. Notably, we see Tom, his wife, his son Nicholas (Tristan Carlucci) and his friends but never the student who has accused him.

That omission is obviously intentional, and this would be a very different play if she did appear. From a dramatic standpoint, it's a valid choice. But it is one that necessarily tilts our sympathies toward Tom he gets to state his case to the audience, but she doesn't get to state hers and it felt to me like the imbalance deprives the play of some of that compelling grey area.

Rather than a straight he said/she said scenario, this becomes a play about how, guilty or not, the accusation upends life for Tom and his loved ones, and how they live with doubt as Leigh puts it, the half-hour in each day where the suspicion creeps in that her husband, who maintains his innocence, is being untruthful.

It all gets off to a bumpy start, with a scene of forced playfulness and levity at the top. But as that gives way to the play's deeper questions, it becomes often captivating, and sometimes crushingly sad. Co-directors Karyl Lynn Burns' and Katharine Farmer's production is filled with long, wrenching pauses that speak volumes.

Thanks to strong performances across the board, we can see what our characters are thinking in those spaces, and more. Watton skillfully skates a fine line as Tom, the only character in the play who knows for certain whether he's guilty. Watton's graceful performance leaves room for either interpretation.

Lisman is equally effective as Tom's devoted, though conflicted, wife although she gets stuck with some of the play's clunkier lines of dialogue (there are still a few rough edges to the play, which has been through multiple workshopsand a title change from Convictionsince premiering in 2014).

MacPherson brings great boyish charmand some needed comic reliefin his role as Tom's loyal buddy Bruce.

Norton earns sympathy as the character who most vocally questions Tom's innocence, and adds a needed counterpoint to the others.

Carlucci turns in a superb performance as Nicholas, who could easily be played as another "troubled angry teen" character, but in whom Carlucci finds intriguing depth.

Burns' and Farmer's direction meets with more mixed success, though. While they give the production the necessary breathing room in some places, there were spots on opening night where the pacing felt not quite sharp enough, the rhythm a bit off, and long scene changes sap some of the energy of the 135-minute (with intermission) production.

But particularly coming during a week when we've seen a battle of words over UBC's handling of the dismissal of one of its former teachers, this is a play, as Burns and Farmer say in their directors' note, that offers a great "third act" the conversation that happens for the audience after the play has ended, and the doubt lingers.

23.5 Hours runs at the Royal MTC Tom Hendry Warehouse until Dec. 3.