Politics are about to take centre stage. The federal election campaign has been eating up headlines this past few weeks, and with voters set to go the polls May 2, a group of Toronto-based theatre artists have decided it is time for another Wrecking Ball.
“It comes out of a moment of political need,” says Michael Wheeler, one of the organizers. This year’s Wrecking Ball – the 12th since it was launched in 2004 – happens Monday night and will feature short political plays created specifically for the event, performed in Victoria, Calgary, Edmonton, Winnipeg, Toronto, Ottawa and Montreal.
The idea came about as an antidote to the attitude that the theatre community doesn’t engage with current events – encouraging playwrights and authors to incorporate the news of the day in their works.
Similar to earlier incarnations, playwrights have been given a couple of broad questions to address, and while the short time to write and rehearse is a challenge, the Wrecking Ball can help boost a playwright’s career and may even add an extra shot, because this year it embraces social media.
“I don’t think it’s exaggerating to say that it is a bit of a stepping stone for playwrights,” says Wheeler, co-artistic director of the Praxis Theatre in Toronto.
Previous Wrecking Balls have also attracted many well-known playwrights. For instance, Judith Thompson was featured in 2008, during the last federal election.
This year, the organizers have chosen Vancouver-based playwright Marcus Youssef as the national writer, an honour that will see his piece performed in every city, with other playwrights coming up with their own short works to stage in addition to his.
“We were sure that he would write something that was both mature and relevant to current events,” Wheeler says of Youssef, who has delved into politics in several of his plays.
Every playwright was given a week to write a short play that can be performed in about 10 minutes, and another week to rehearse.
“You’re under the gun,” says Toronto playwright Jean Yoon, who is participating this year. “I’m a bit of a political junkie,” she says, adding that, “the election is certainly a big part of the piece that I’ve done.”
This year, playwrights were asked to address two questions in their works: What is leadership? And what is democracy?
“It’s something that obviously points people in the direction of current events but is as un-prescriptive as possible,” Wheeler says.
Some playwrights will choose to answer with very serious material, while others will opt for satire. Youssef, for instance, says his piece imagines Jack Layton, Stephen Harper, Gilles Duceppe and Michael Ignatieff in a group therapy session.
A recent Rick Mercer rant on how the youth vote is ignored by the major political parties, is “the kind of piece that you could easily expect to see at a Wrecking Ball before an election,” Yoon says.
Toronto playwright Sean Dixon has wanted to participate in a Wrecking Ball since it began, and now he has his chance.
“It’s quite a beautiful response to this idea that I’ve heard before with reference to Toronto theatre, that it doesn’t respond to current events,” he says.
His piece imagines Harper winning a majority government and sharing a personal moment with his stylist.
At this year’s event, only the second to be national, organizers are also making the conversation digital in the hopes that the whole country can be part of it.
Organizers are creating a Twitter hashtag to connect the plays across the country, all happening at the same time Monday night – although each will likely be involved with it differently, Wheeler says.
“In Ottawa, they’ve set it up that they’re going to be Twittering live from the show and uploading pics via Twitpic,” he says.
Other cities will engage with it as they choose – it’s all part of the experiment. But expect a flurry of Tweets, Wheeler says.
“That hashtag is going to be very active that night, with audience members responding, playwrights responding, updates on what’s going on with all of them, thoughts that come from the pieces. Hopefully, there’s a national conversation that develops out of it,” Wheeler says.
