Cult Play, a new play written by non-binary playwright and Concordia graduate Scout Rexe, recently made its world premiere at the Segal Centre. Presented by Imagos Theatre, the play follows Alex (Madeleine Scovil), a queer actress in Montreal who falls in love with a woman named Taylor (Kayleigh Choiniere). The one-woman show explores the cost of the natural desire for belonging and the question hovering over Alex: Do we actually have the capacity for fully informed consent?

Alex narrates the play, and the characters she interacts with are presented through video or, in certain scenes, via audience participation. As the only conveyor of the story, she controls the narrative and grants the audience consent to witness it.

Cult Play begins when the two lovers form a lust that manifests itself through bondage, first interacting on the phone and later meeting in Arizona. Taylor persuades Alex to join her at a mysterious retreat centre in California, referred to as ‘The Centre,’ a place devoted to the practice of bondage. The facility’s charismatic owner, Hunt (Thomas Valliéres), runs the retreat with a sort of radical idealism. 

In videos of his interactions with Alex, Hunt questions societal structures that he believes chain people to a capitalist mindset. He criticizes the idea of therapy, claiming it creates a dependence which prevents individuals from meaningful improvement. As the play unfolds, it is clear that his view of dependence is not exclusive to therapy, shaping Alex’s experience in the retreat.

The centre initially seems like the perfect place for Alex, who has trust issues stemming from her unsupportive, demeaning father. Encouraged to be more definitive in facing her obstacles, she feels like she has finally found a space where she belongs. Surrounded by people who seem to understand her—alongside the love of her life—she quietly steps away from her acting career and focuses on herself.

However, the play quickly reveals that this ‘Centre’ is not entirely meant to heal. A mystery involving Taylor and Hunt, a push for Alex to share more, and ever-weakening personal barriers give Alex the sense that she might just be in a cult.

Hunt dismisses the act of being able to consent, as he claims that individuals do not have the capacity to enjoy their own choices. His belief that people require guidance to make good decisions manifests itself in a gradual but shocking tearing of boundaries, pushing Alex into more intimate bondage situations. Though increasingly nervous about the Centre’s control over retreatants, Alex reluctantly complies with Hunt’s requests to desperately win the approval of the Hunt-devoted Taylor.

Fittingly, Cult Play uses audience interaction as a framing device for its central theme of consent. Alex begins by presenting questions on a projector, lines which audience members are encouraged to ask her.

In doing so, audience members consent to becoming active participants in the story and trust that boundaries will not be crossed. Using the same framing later on, the audience is encouraged to ask for Alex’s consent to look into more harrowing parts of the narrative. Verbally, they affirm the theatre as a safe space. When prompted, audience members may also choose to join Alex in performing scenes alongside her, a gesture of mutual respect and boundaries. 

Scout Rexe’s masterful script blends physical performance, digital media, and audience interaction in an immersive experience that bleeds emotions out into the real world. Through an immensely intimate experience based on trust between the performer and the audience, Cult Play argues that consent isn’t irrational—and that choosing happiness isn’t a perpetuation of some capitalist status quo.
Ultimately, Alex discovers that true belonging means acceptance of all of her. She learns to let go of a place where she felt she belonged because, although it accepted her queerness, it did not accept her desire to feel comfortable with her own choices. In her final reflections, as Alex reckons with the paths laid out in front of her, she harnesses herself to the on-stage shibari structure, pulls herself up, and allows herself to float. And then the lights go out.