Could you get into the Wrecking Ball near you last night? I was at the one in Toronto at Tarragon Theatre and dozens of would-be spectators were turned away at the door from the evening of written-in-under-a-week political playlets. (There were nine others WBs across the country from Corner Brook to Victoria.)
The first star, la première étoile of the evening was Rick Roberts, both as writer and performer. His 30 Seconds To Apocalpyse, directed by Vikki Anderson, was a series of satiric television advertisements tracking the downfall of civilization (which apparently begins with Stephen Harper's re-election).
But Roberts was particularly gasping-for-air funny as a Spartan playwright sentenced to death for his subversive work in Ottawa writer Pierre Brault's The Last Days of Sparta.
Up next, Teresa Pavlinek's The Road to Ordinary was a sweet, simple two-hander about a pair of Canadians from different backgrounds (lovely performances form Ieva Lucs and Hardee T Lineham) forced to sit together on a bus, a pleasant change from weeks of divide-and-conquer political campaigning.
The script-in-hand theatrical portion of the evening was capped off with a new monologue from Judith Thompson, who is swiftly turning into Canada's David Hare. Nail Biter was a chilling piece about one of the CSIS officers sent down to Guantanamo Bay to interview Omar Khadr. Though I detected a couple of straw men in Thompson's monologue, Gray Powell, from the Shaw Festival, brought the self-doubting agent to life extremely effectively.
Make no mistake: This wasn't a fair-and-balanced evening of politics. Theatre artists are angry at one guy whose name is Stephen Harper. They're angry over the recent funding cuts, but especially over his infamous "rich gala" comments... Luckily, most of the ones on hand last night were angry in an entertaining or illuminating way.
The only part of the evening that veered too far into the realm of agitprop for me was spoken-word artist Belladonna's bit. When she attempted to get the audience to chant, "This is how a revolution happens," I wanted to flee. I find that sort of thing excruciating.
Playwright and co-organiser Michael Healey got the best line of the evening, I thought, when he ventured an opinion that actually startled the crowd: "Stephen Harper is a patriot." After reading funny snippets of various fringe parties' websites (Marxist-Leninists, Rhinos, the Work Less Party), Healey got serious and said that they were all patriots, and Harper too. That these people loved their country, wanted to change it for what they thought was the better and were willing to put their time and money where their mouths were. His message: if the audience's vision of the country was different, then they need to get out there and articulate it and fight for it.
There was a Wajdi Mouawad call-to-arms read out before we all left buzzing into the night, and it was... interesting. The first person I spoke to about it on the way out fought it infuriating. I'd like to say more, but I'm waiting to see if I can get a copy because I had stopped taking notes at that point. But it seemed to be arguing - shades of Stephen Harper - that artists aren't ordinary people at all.
UPDATE: Ah, here it is. Like I said, more later.
