The best kind of art is the type when you are not really sure what you are looking at, the type that keeps you constantly thinking. Watching Persona Collective’s performing arts piece ‘The Halfway House’ did exactly that. Not only were my thoughts in motion, but I was too, as we were taken through the Old CSM building in socially distanced groups. The experience was something between watching a fragmented movie, being in a haunted house, and being in touch with your memories all at once, as the story that was being told was not in chronological order. The interactive way that we walked through the building added an extra element of voyeurism and mystique, as if the events were all happening parallel to each other and not for an audience to witness. A fact I wish I had known before watching, is that this beautiful, eerie building is soon to be torn down to build a hotel, adding another layer of tragedy to the events we were seeing, as the dialogue shifted from an old arts school to a hotel multiple times throughout the story. I think the hints were there in the beginning, as we entered the first room, which was a modern room filled with swivelling desk chairs. The story flips real life on its head, by playing with the idea of ghosts in a very “sixth sense” manner, without giving any real clues about which storyline is present or past until the very end, which even then can be debated. The theme of death, obviously very prevalent, gave a melancholy to the piece about the transience of moments and the passing of time. In a year where time has felt non existent, this was especially poignant, and the repetition of certain scenes and narratives made the storyline even more uncertain, while at the same time adding a sense of continuity and completion. Seeing the same scene twice from a different angle, once at the very beginning and once at the very end, spooked me in a very real way. But the most moving moment, while a bit cliche, was being brought on the stage of their theatre, with the audience looking at us as if we were the actors. This theme has been done before, but in this context felt more real, as if the only real narrative is the one happening now; our lives and experiences. While our attention was on them for the past hour, in reality we are the ones with the power. The actors, as symbols of time passing, showed in a meaningful way how anything that happened in that building was long gone, and the only things that can remain are in our hands. While this idea is even more impactful looking back, with the knowledge of the demolition to take place, I did not know this at the time, which shows again how this piece works on multiple layers to haunt the audience, in all definitions of the word. An ode to time passing, with notes of absurdism and gentrification, ‘The Halfway House’ was a very touching portrayal of the fragility of life and death, all the moments that take place in between, and the wider context of these stories to their surroundings.