In Absentia at the Centaur is a play fraught with symbolism. There are bare trees, a frozen river, the endless winter and the barren (or is she?) heroine of the piece. When Collette’s husband goes missing in Colombia while working for an oil company, she hunkers down and plays psychic possum. Her older sister Evelyn, brilliantly performed by the unstoppable Susan Glover, comes to take care of her.

We hear the subtext – “The most depressing person in my family is here to cheer me up” – addressed to the absent (yet present) Tom, her perfidious husband. She has also planned some infidelity with an unbearably nice neighbour, Bill. At one point she even attributes the kidnapping of her husband to a kind of karmic retribution for her contemplated betrayal.

One day a mysterious young man (played with charisma by Jade Hassouné) appears on the frozen lake and waves to her. His new age psychobabble is one of several irritating aspects of the piece. But it is worth braving a cold February night just to watch him prance around wearing and not wearing the absent Tom’s clothing.

Paul Hopkins is perfect as the philandering kidnapped hubby. He plays the projected and imagined spouse with terrific elegance and takes the bland dialogue to depths of feeling. Carlo Mestroni as the neighbour described as “pathologically decent” is convincing, unfortunately.

Jillian Fargey has the habit of delivering all her lines, and they did feel like line readings, in a monotone. English is a tonal language and without adequate modulation the audience loses the thread of the sentence. Sadly there were a lot of these sentences and they were uniformly dull. It may be a minor point, but what costume designer would allow a Canadian woman to go for a walk on a frozen lake in a short skirt?

The set was spectacular and even before the lights went down several audience members said they wanted to move into the building on stage. In Toronto, “cottage industry” means buying and selling five bedroom cottages. This was one of those.

The beautiful shimmering trees and snow falling projections were spectacular. The moving bed was really fine, but underemployed. What was missing was the playwright who had written Gordon, a brilliant play which premiered at the Segal last year. This play was repetitive and cliché ridden and one had to struggle to care at all about the main character. Even Jasper, the mysterious young man, didn’t give us enough of a hook for any kind of emotional empathy, which made the ending moot. If this play is what passes for passion on the Pacific coast, it still does not cut the mustard in Montreal.

In Absentia, at The Centaur Theatre at 453 St. Francois Xavier St. in Old Montreal through March 4. Most performances are at 8 p.m., but some Wednesday and Sunday performances are at 1, 2 and 7 p.m. Box office at (514) 288-3161 or www.centaurtheatre.com to learn more.