Monday, April 11, 2011
Polish Congress disputes Toronto theatre’s version of WWII massacre of Jews
The Globe and Mail: "A Toronto theatre company mounting a controversial play about Poles and Jews during the Second World War has declined a request from the Canadian Polish Congress that it “withdraw” background historical material from the play’s program.
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6 comments:
I wonder if this show has a dramaturg. The question of historical accuracy is an important one. Plays do not necessarily need to be completely accurate, but those producing or writing them need to know the facts, and if they choose to steer away from them, then they need a good reason. I don't know anything about the event that is at hand here, but it seems to me that the theatre company is being awfully quiet on the subject. I would like to hope they did more research that simply reading one book on the subject, but if they were extremely informed, I would expect them to defend themselves....
Going into a show, I never really think about whether the information I'm going to get from it is historically accurate or not. After reading this article, I'm thinking that maybe I should. I'm sure that the first introduction of people, especially children, to many historical events is probably through a show. I would hate to think that people would be misinformed by theatre, which should be both enlightening and informative. I think that Studio180 should have taken this into consideration and been more responsible to their audiences. Whether the company had a dramaturg or not, they should have checked out their source. In fact, it would have been a really great idea if they had used more than one source. Maybe a second source would have led them to question the information they had gotten. While I appreciate that the CPC is not trying to be too aggressive or make a scene about this, I do hope that they are heard.
Whether or not there's anything in this story depends, i think, greatly on the stance of the company producing the show. If they claim the play is a "true story" being told of WWII crimes against the Jews then my mind follows Emily's thoughts; where was the freakin' dramaturg? However, if the play never claims such, if it being produced as a work of fiction, I don't think there's anything to be done. I mean, plenty to theatre has a basis in fact but never claims to be factual. No one in England is trying to shut down productions of "Richard III" because Shakespeare didn't get his facts straight. While the article is a little vague on EXACTLY how Studio 180 is selling this show as, I believe it leans towards the former rather than the latter.
The article certainly doesn't mention a dramaturg or if one was involved and I know from career experience the only person to be cut faster from a show's design/production team than a media designer is a dramaturg. Still, if Studio 180's production of this play is claiming factual accuracy (IE, the following is a true story) then one would THINK hiring someone who's job it would be to, I don't know, CHECK on these facts might have been a good decision. Many theatre companies, for better or worse, and these days more than ever it seems, are constantly trying to squeeze out new productions on smaller and smaller shoestring budgets. Much as we feel historical accuracy on a historical show is NECESSARY, many private companies feel it is less-so when there's money involved. As much as it may sadden me to hear of a theatre company being called out on inaccuracies, if they willfully ignored fact-checking because they didn't want to hire someone to do it, then I kinda feel they deserve this negative press.
I agree with Shannon. Usually going into a show I don't about if the information in historically correct or not. I just accept the facts that are presented to me without question. Now when I go into a show I'm going to do a little research of my own to see if this accurate or not.
I wonder just like Emily if they had a Dramaturg for this production. I hate it that people are being misinformed because of theater. Theater should provoke thought or comment on history or the present but not present absolute lies. That's wrong. I do hope the do some more research than just read one book on the subject matter of the play.
I feel that in a case such as this, the facts are objective. There are likely few people left who can give an account of the massacre (or at least an unbiased and wholly factual account). In this case, I would tend to give more credit to the sociologist than a group which, while founded under the best intentions and is assuredly only doing what they think is right, undoubtedly holds a bias. There isn't really any way to argue that a Polish organization is going to react badly to a play which portrays poles in a bad light, so I'm pretty skeptical about this whole business.
One of the important things to keep in mind when talking the politics of history is to understand everyone has a different point of view and sometimes the facts don't always line up with each others facts. I am not saying that either party in this article is right or wrong, but by changing the play to surround the CPC's wishes would then be the story the CPC wants to tell you, not the playwrights. There is always going to be discrepancies in history and exaggerations to a degree but you have to understand everyone's story is different and there is always a different point of view. The CPC has the way they want to tell it and the playwright has his. Everyone distorts a story for dramatic effect, even the stories that are pretty darn close to the truth and exact detail.
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