“But why wouldn’t you give it five stars?” asked my plus-one as we scurried back to the car. And so began a 40-minute drive discussing what we liked about the one-person play Funeral Flowers at Red Stitch Theatre and what was, and still is, holding me back from rounding up that last half-star.

If you had rolled up next to my car, you would’ve seen two bobbleheads nodding furiously about the production led by director Candy Bowers: “The writing was amazing”, “Lucy was a chameleon”, “I loved how the sound and lighting shifted us from location to location”, “Did you see they got UK chips for her prop?”

Lucy Ansell in Funeral Flowers. Photo © Jess D’cruze

Bowers opened the show’s season by sharing how proud she was of the production. As she should be. She created a space for Lucy Ansell, playing Angelique, and Emma Dennis-Edwards’ script, about Angelique’s experience of sexual assault and her mother’s incarceration, to shine.

I was enthralled by Dennis-Edwards’ writing. She sprinkles rhymes into the script with lines like, “It’s been half a year but...