www.intermissionmagazine.ca: By the end of this season, Chekhov will have had at least four productions in Toronto. In the fall, Michel Tremblay paid tribute to the writer in Cher Tchekov at the National Arts Centre. I saw Bulgakov’s Le roman de monsieur de Molière staged at Théâtre du Nouveau Monde in November (an adaptation which, in quite the flight of fancy, depicted the writer of Master and Margarita as pro-Ukrainian). Buddies in Bad Times put a call out for submissions this February inviting artists to playfully “filter Fyodor Dostoyevsky’s unique style and perspectives through a 21st century queer lens.”
3 comments:
I will admit that I am not exactly invested in conversations of programming except for a few notable exceptions. I naturally shy away from most controversial topics as I have an unfortunate “People Pleasing” nature. However, despite this, I definitely sympathize with the subject of this article. I have always felt for the Ukrainian people and found it absolutely disgusting that certain members of leftist parties have demonized them and further that western powers have failed so terribly. I also have a particularly large axe to grind with the Soviet Union and now Russia. I understand that many of these russian plays are extremely good and absolute staples of theatre and therefore do not wish to completely gouge them from theatre repertoire but I feel like right now is a particularly bad time to showcase Russian culture when the Russian Government is actively an imperialist power and are trying to wipe out Ukrainian culture and replace it with Russian culture.
Is it possible to separate the creative from their work? I think that this is a question that has been a point of contention for many years now, especially in the age of the internet and hyper-accessibility that stems from social media. In many ways, this article touches upon this very topic. It argues that many Canadian theatres are doing Russian plays because many Russian plays touch on the feelings felt due to the Covid-19 pandemic and the sentiments behind isolation and quarantine. However, there is no escaping the reality of our present- Russia’s invasion of Ukraine and the outbreak of war is a looming presence during the presentation of these plays. It is right to put on Russian plays in this climate? Isn’t the promotion of plays that are Russian inherently also promoting Russian culture? Is that right in a reality where Russia is actively trying to destroy Ukrainian culture? These are all questions that I find worth considering and have given me a new perspective on how theatres select their shows in a season.
Being someone who have been living in Canada for a decent amount of time throughout my life, it is happy for me to see that Canadian theater are gaining for recognition internationally. The resent Ukraine-Russia conflict has been an important event that the international society has been talking about throughout the past two years. The Ukrainian refugees who have moved into Canada brought their own culture with them and their kind of artform into Canadian theaters. It is really sad to see things like this happening and that people have been feeling sad and anxious about the forms of artwork that they have been creating throughout the pandemic. These past three years has been an extremely hard period of time for all and when there is more tragedy and life threating events happening, despite often brings more artwork that revoke people’s feelings, it is also extremely sad to be in and really unfortunate.
Post a Comment