Will the prime minister sue a group of Vancouver actors on Sunday?
Practically every theatre company in the city has joined together to mount a staged reading of a satirical play - Proud - that Toronto's Tarragon Theatre chose not to present after a board member raised concerns Stephen Harper might have a case for defamation against anyone who staged it.
The Arts Club Theatre, Play-wrights Theatre Centre, Ruby Slippers, Horseshoes & Hand Grenades, Compassionate Bone, Leaky Heaven Circus, Pi Theatre, Neworld Theatre, Touchstone Theatre and Felix Culpa are presenting the controversial new comedy at PL 1422, 1422 William Street.
Playwright Michael Healey told The Sun he was warned by Tarragon Theatre artistic director Richard Rose in January that a board member had libel concerns about the script.
Healey hired his own lawyer who he said advised him, "there was no way I could be successfully sued - that it all falls under fair comment, and is obviously satire. I thought the issue would end there. Instead I was told the risk for the Tarragon was too great."
In February, Healey resigned as the Tarragon's playwright-in-residence - a position he'd held for 11 years - and started planning his own production.
David Bloom, who's directing the Vancouver reading, which features four of the city's finest actors (Tom McBeath, John Cassini, Quelemia Sparrow and Gaelan Beatty), says the idea of a libel suit is a red herring, but he understands why artists might be afraid of offending the current government.
"Obviously companies who depend on Heritage Canada - have reason to be nervous about upsetting a sitting government - The federal government can withdraw funding from any-body it likes. Would they do something punitive because of this script? Who's to say?" This would sound like paranoia if not for a few recent controversies where artists with an anti-government bent have had their federal funding pulled.
Summerworks, a Toronto theatre festival, lost its annual funding the year after a spokesman for the Prime Minister's Office expressed "disappointment" that Heritage Canada funded a festival that presented a play about terrorism.
Summerworks' Heritage Canada funding was restored for the 2012 season.
The Tarragon Theatre has denied politics were involved in the decision not to stage Healey's play.
Once word spread about Tarragon's decision not to stage the play, professional and ad hoc theatre groups in Toronto, Halifax, Montreal, Niagara-on-the-Lake, Barrie, North Bay, Thunder Bay, Winnipeg and Whitehorse staged readings to support the principle of free artistic expression and raise funds for Healey's production, which is opening in Toronto this September. To date, more than $16,000 has been privately donated to the production via gofundme.com Says Bloom, "The important thing about producing this reading is that theatre artists across the country are saying to each other and to our audiences, 'We are not backing off of controversial work out of fear.' That matters, regardless of who's in government."
AT A GLANCE
PROUD
When: Sunday, 8 p.m.
Where: PL 1422, 1422 William Str.
Tickets: General admission, by donation. For more information and reservations, email proudvancouver@gmail.com.
Original Article
Source: vancouver sun
Author: Mark Leiren-Young
Practically every theatre company in the city has joined together to mount a staged reading of a satirical play - Proud - that Toronto's Tarragon Theatre chose not to present after a board member raised concerns Stephen Harper might have a case for defamation against anyone who staged it.
The Arts Club Theatre, Play-wrights Theatre Centre, Ruby Slippers, Horseshoes & Hand Grenades, Compassionate Bone, Leaky Heaven Circus, Pi Theatre, Neworld Theatre, Touchstone Theatre and Felix Culpa are presenting the controversial new comedy at PL 1422, 1422 William Street.
Playwright Michael Healey told The Sun he was warned by Tarragon Theatre artistic director Richard Rose in January that a board member had libel concerns about the script.
Healey hired his own lawyer who he said advised him, "there was no way I could be successfully sued - that it all falls under fair comment, and is obviously satire. I thought the issue would end there. Instead I was told the risk for the Tarragon was too great."
In February, Healey resigned as the Tarragon's playwright-in-residence - a position he'd held for 11 years - and started planning his own production.
David Bloom, who's directing the Vancouver reading, which features four of the city's finest actors (Tom McBeath, John Cassini, Quelemia Sparrow and Gaelan Beatty), says the idea of a libel suit is a red herring, but he understands why artists might be afraid of offending the current government.
"Obviously companies who depend on Heritage Canada - have reason to be nervous about upsetting a sitting government - The federal government can withdraw funding from any-body it likes. Would they do something punitive because of this script? Who's to say?" This would sound like paranoia if not for a few recent controversies where artists with an anti-government bent have had their federal funding pulled.
Summerworks, a Toronto theatre festival, lost its annual funding the year after a spokesman for the Prime Minister's Office expressed "disappointment" that Heritage Canada funded a festival that presented a play about terrorism.
Summerworks' Heritage Canada funding was restored for the 2012 season.
The Tarragon Theatre has denied politics were involved in the decision not to stage Healey's play.
Once word spread about Tarragon's decision not to stage the play, professional and ad hoc theatre groups in Toronto, Halifax, Montreal, Niagara-on-the-Lake, Barrie, North Bay, Thunder Bay, Winnipeg and Whitehorse staged readings to support the principle of free artistic expression and raise funds for Healey's production, which is opening in Toronto this September. To date, more than $16,000 has been privately donated to the production via gofundme.com Says Bloom, "The important thing about producing this reading is that theatre artists across the country are saying to each other and to our audiences, 'We are not backing off of controversial work out of fear.' That matters, regardless of who's in government."
AT A GLANCE
PROUD
When: Sunday, 8 p.m.
Where: PL 1422, 1422 William Str.
Tickets: General admission, by donation. For more information and reservations, email proudvancouver@gmail.com.
Original Article
Source: vancouver sun
Author: Mark Leiren-Young
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