WB9: Remembrance Day
The Wrecking Ball presents
Remembrance Day 2009: Bring Our Troops Home! And Then Replace Them With Civilians! Many of Which Will Be Former Troops!
Our writers:
NORMAN ARMOUR (Artistic Director of the PuSh International Festivsal on art not just in british columbia)
DIANE FLACKS (on fear, but goofy)
SONJA MILLS (on all kinds of slavery, with singing, directed by Ruth Madoc Jones)
ERIN SHIELDS (on the sex trade, directed by Alan Dilworth)
DAVID YEE (on how to become chinese for funding purposes, directed by Nina Lee Aquino)
and the great AVI PETTERSEN* (on canada’s presence in afghanistan, directed by Liza Balkan)
- yes. that’s a pseudonym.
As we don a poppy and contemplate the end of our NATO commitment in Afghanistan, it’s the right moment to ask: poppies are from Afgahnistan. We must have loads of them. Do I really have to give that old duffer a whole loonie for something that’s going to fall off my lapel before I even get out of the LCBO parking lot?
It’s time for the country’s theatre artists to cast a cold eye on a cooling landscape and see what’s worth remembering, and what we can’t wait to forget. Remember when the Prime Minister couldn’t put a foot right? When the Nobel Peace Prize was handed out for accomplishment? When arts organizations in British Columbia weren’t regarded as skidmarks on the underpants of that province’s economy? Remember when you could sneeze and not think: “That’s it. I’m fucked”?
The 9th edition of the Wrecking Ball is coming, and this time, it’s been dunked in Purell. Playlettes and scenelettes and bitlettes include work from Diane Flacks, Sonja Mills (directed by Ruth Madoc-Jones), Avi Pettersen (directed by Liza Balkan), Erin Shields (directed by Alan Dilworth), and David Yee (directed by Nina Lee Aquino). Expect commentary on the issues of the day, insight from individuals thinking deeply about the world around them, wit, and lower forms of wit. Do not expect, under no circumstances expect to see Michael Healey’s nads. Again.
Wrecking Balls will be taking place in Montreal, Ottawa and Vancouver in the coming weeks; we will get glimpses of material from some of these at our event. The venue for the Vancouver Edition, we understand, is a used refrigerator box under the Lion’s Gate Bridge.
About The Wrecking Ball
The Wrecking Ball was founded in Toronto in November 2004 to address a nagging imbalance: too much theatre in our politics, not enough politics in our theatre. There’ve been eight Toronto Wrecking Balls cabarets to date, and the October, 2008 edition saw the WB go national – Wrecking Balls were staged semi-simultaneously in 10 cities across the country, in advance of the federal election. An unprecedented mobilization of artists and art lovers.
Writers are instructed to wait until the last minute to come up with material that reflects the current state of affairs. They are free to write on whatever topic they wish: the global, the national, the local, the very local. The plays are then cast and staged at the last minute, and this immediacy is what makes the Wrecking Ball the rollicking theatrical nerve ending that it is.
Past writers for the Wrecking Ball include: Jason Sherman, Judith Thompson, Karen Hines, Norm Foster, David Young, Michael Healey, Morwyn Brebner, Daniel MacIvor, Hannah Moscovitch, Andrew Moodie, Claudia Dey, Morris Panych, d’bi.young, Linda Griffiths, Teresa Pavlinek, Rick Roberts and many others. Check out the website for more information about political theatre throughout the world.
The Wrecking Ball Nine: Remembrance Day is ONE PERFORMANCE ONLY
Sunday, November 8, 2009
Box Office opens at 7:00pm
Show starts at 8:00pm
The Theatre Centre,
1087 Queen St West
Toronto, ON
Prices: Pay what you can (No advanced sales) – proceeds will go to the Actor’s Fund of Canada
Media Contact Ravi Jain: ravi.c.jain@gmail.com
- 2 11 2009 - 23:02
