The Hours That Remain

GRID RATING: 6/10

Starring Tara Beagan, Eli Ham, Keira Loughran. Written by Keith Barker. Directed by David Storch. Aki Studio Theatre, to Nov. 4.

There are 18 mysteries left abandoned on the Highway of Tears in B.C.—one for each woman who has disappeared along that stretch of road over the past 43 years. The Hours That Remain, by Native Earth Performing Arts playwright-in-residence Keith Barker, is inspired by those stories. Denise (Tara Beagan), who is haunted by unexplainable visions, becomes obsessed with uncovering the fate of her missing sister (Keira Loughran), while alienating her loving husband. Though director David Storch and designers Andy Moro and Michelle Ramsay skillfully blur the lines of Denise’s reality and imagination in this thriller/mystery/ghost story, the characters are either underdeveloped or behave in inexplicable ways for the sake of a twist ending that is too quickly glossed over.