I have been a fan of the SummerWorks Theatre Festival for a while. But it wasn’t until the summer of 2010 that I was struck by the huge importance of the festival as a critical forum for Canadian cultural and political discourse. That year, SummerWorks put on the wildly controversial Homegrown, a play about Shareef Abdelhaleem, one of the “Toronto 18” who was convicted for participating in a terrorist plot.
At its core, Homegrown dared to ask the uncomfortable question of how and why a Canadian citizen, who has spent the better part of his life living in Toronto, might be compelled to support terrorist acts in his hometown. The Harper government deemed the play a “glorification of terrorism,” and federal funding was pulled from the festival in 2011. Much discussion followed about freedom of artistic expression and the value of political dialogue, ultimately reinforcing the Festival’s invaluable and uniquely positioned contribution to cultural and political criticism.
Unexpectedly, federal funding was restored this year, and the 2012 SummerWorks Festival, now of the venerable age of 22, returns August 9 to 19 with over 40 plays, a “Performance Bar,” a Live Art Series and a new Music Series.
The lineup is, in a word, fantastic.
Not surprisingly, there are a number of politically themed works: A Thousand Words follows the criminal investigation of the death of two Canadian soldiers on mission in Afghanistan, as photographic evidence suggests that the soldiers may have had interests beyond their mission. In France, or the Niqab, a comedy inspired by a sharp Globe and Mail column by Tabatha Southey, defence lawyer Tabatha considers what miniskirts, high heels and the Islamic niqab have, or should have, in common. The Hearing of Jeremy Hinzman is the story of the US soldier who refused to fight in Afghanistan, and instead navigated the Canadian court system as he tried to become the first US refugee in Canada. Les Demimondes, praised for its electrifying marriage of dance, film, song and movement, explores the ways in which media and the arts have portrayed, commented on and ultimately exploited sex workers and the position they occupy in today’s society.
Of course, SummerWorks is also a celebration of performance and theatre deliciously divorced from the world of current events, or even reality. Take Extinction Song, winner of the Sterling award for best new play, which is a one-man show about a child’s escape from his alcoholic father into an imaginary world full of friendly wolves. There is also good sprinkling of musings on love and relationships, like Marine Life and When It Rains, and the strange and solitary, like Pieta, in which a 50-year-old divorced woman wakes up, confused, in a Copenhagen hotel.
And if all this still leaves you under-stimulated, you shouldn’t miss the Festival’s Music Series — eight nights of great music from some of the country’s best musicians in collaboration with theatre artists. The Music Series lineup includes Hawksley Workman, Buck 65, Bry Webb, Sandro Perri, The Magic, Doug Paisley, Evening Hymns, Aline Morales and others.
What: SummerWorks Festival
When: August 9-19, 2012
Tickets: At venue, an hour before performance, in person, at the Lower Ossington Box Office, or at summerworks.ca/2012/tickets.