“We are all affected by war, whether we realize it or not,”
says Shahin Sayadi, artistic director of Halifax’s OneLight Theatre.
“It influences so much, from the price of food and gas, to our
connections with soldiers who go and come back, or who go and
don’t.
“And since 9/11, we are all forced to live with the fact that Fox
[TV] tells us that there is terror around every corner.”
Sayadi’s impassioned belief that it’s necessary for more people to
become aware and vocal about the effect of seemingly far-away wars on
everyday existence led to the creation of The Civilian Project: two
plays that explore the impact of war on ordinary people.
The first play, The Toxic Bus Incident, commissioned by
OneLight from Montreal-based playwright Greg MacArthur, opens April 7
at Neptune Studio Theatre. It is loosely based on an actual incident
that happened in 2004 in Vancouver, when passengers on a city bus
became ill after they came to believe that they had been poisoned by an
unidentified Middle Eastern man. Factions were (and still are) divided
as to whether the incident was a terrorist attack or an example of mass
psychogenic illness.
“As far as I can discover, the case was still open in 2007,” says
Toxic Bus‘ set and costume designer D’Arcy Morris-Poultney.
“This play basically offers one possible conclusion to the story.”
Morris-Poultney describes Toxic Bus as an “environmental piece”
in the sense that audience is intended to become part of the play.
“It may seem counter-intuitive, but we’re transforming the stage
from its open, thrust design into a kind of box by using a proscenium,”
he explains as he points out the features on the tiny model in
OneLight’s Argyle Street office.
The set places the play’s characters in a room without doors and
windows, a room that will look a lot like a television set from the
audience’s point of view. Piped-in images of war flash on the walls;
intrusions into a supposedly peaceful world of a polite Vancouver
suburb.
Original music combining classical, hip-hop, eastern and electric
influences composed by Dinuk Wijeratne and innovative sound design by
Jeremy Parker are intended to surround and trap the audience in a box
of sound.
“In this production, lights, set and sound become very important,”
explains Sayadi. “The house becomes part of the design, and so does the
music. You don’t see it, but you will certainly feel it!”
The second play, which Sayadi is in the process of writing and which
is scheduled to hit the stage in November 2009, is called Return
Ticket: Halifax-Abadan-Halifax. It tells the story of a
playwright/director who travels to his hometown of Abadan, Iran, to
research the story of his cousin who has chosen to remain in his
hometown throughout eight years of war. It explores the impact of both
decisions—staying and leaving—on the people who make them.
“The Civilian Project is a way to stimulate talk about subject
matter that isn’t talked about enough,” says Sayadi. “People may feel
geographically removed from war, but the war on terror is a global
war.
In fact, the project has already inspired participation from
Canada’s west coast. Vancouver’s Boca del Lupo Theatre Society has
decided mount a play under The Civilian Project banner. An Imaginary
Look at the Uncompromising Life of Thomas Smith will explore the
internal conflict felt by a fictitious photojournalist in the final
moments of his life, as he considers his role and culpability as a
chronicler of war. The play will premiere in Toronto in the fall of
2010 as part of World Stage at the Harbourfront Centre.
For Sayadi, Boca del Lupo’s involvement is proof that The Civilian
Project is already on its way to doing what it was designed to
do—generate discussion and awareness of the devastating impact of
war.
“More people, groups, and artists need to raise their voices, and
maybe by calling people ‘civilians’ and naming them in a way they’ve
never been named before, that will happen.”
OneLight Theatre’s The Toxic Bus
Incident, April 7-24 at Neptune Studio Theatre, 1593 Argyle,
8pm w/weekend matinees, $17 w/PWYC April 7-9, 425-6812, onelighttheatre.com.
This article appears in Apr 2-8, 2009.