Review: SMALL AXE at The Theatre Centre

Five years in development, "Small Axe" is a compelling, timely, provocative and inspiring new piece of Verbatim Theatre now playing at the Theatre Centre.

It is presented by The Theatre Centre and Project: Humanity (PH). Founded in 2008, PH calls itself "a non-profit organization raising awareness of social issues through the arts." It reunites actor/writer Andrew Kushnir and director Alan Dilworth, who previously collaborated in 2010 on PH's "The Middle Place," a successful play about Toronto's homeless youth. Premiered at SummerWorks, it was restaged as a coproduction of Theatre Passe Muraille, Canadian Stage and PH.

"Small Axe" tackles, without fear or favor the powder-keg issues of homophobia, racism, privilege and "intersectionality." The play is a discussion between a bespectacled sincere, intense, vulnerable interlocutor ...a white person of European descent (Kushnir) ... and various Jamaican lesbian, gays and transgenders (LGBT): two women (Sarah Afful and Lisa Codrington) and three men (Michael Blake, Chy Ryan Spain and Richard Ausar Stewart, who replaced the injured Marcel Stewart the night I attended.)

These five actors conjure up and express in this verbatim theatre production, the words and opinions Kushnir gathered in his many interviews and conversations. The script's essential purpose is to find common ground and understanding. That is a tall order, especially in today's internet dependent world.

When you can instantly connect with Japan by e-mail with the touch of a send button, we do so because of "a Grain of Sand." Today, Blake's metaphor is a silicon chip, enabling us to achieve that which is limited only by our imagination. Social media gives us access to an"infinity in the palms of our hands" so we may experience "Eternity in an hour."

Ironically, the more we are able to connect with anybody anywhere through technology, the less we seem to be able to connect with each other, especially those who are different from us. And, as most of us know, it is difficult to have a reasoned discussion about controversial issues on the Facebook where people, safe from face-to-face engagement, tend to fly to extremes.

In "Small Axe," actor/writer Andrew Kushnir and director Alan Dilworth have returned to basics: one on one conversation in a presentational style, just as it happened in the nascent theatres of ancient Greece with the presentation and sharing of stories and ideas, conversation between strangers in an effort to foster mutual understanding that may lead t, at the least, tolerance and, at best, inclusion... maybe even a Damascene revelation ... and acknowledgement ... of our shared humanity.

Written by Andrew Kushnir and Alan Dilworth, this docu-theatre production is an exploration of" what happens when a white, queer Ukrainian artist (Kushnir) engages with various members of the Jamaican lesbian, gay and transgender (LGBT) community to investigate the aforementioned issues. Among them is intersectionality, that is various forms or systems of oppression, domination or discrimination based on such social categories as race, class and gender.

Just as a grain of sand becomes a pearl by "irritating" an oyster into cover it with layers of nacre, "Small Axe" began, I supposed, from an irritant that challenged Kushnir's world view. It happened in an "affecting" conversation he had with a gay Jamaican friend eight years ago, in 2007. Kushnir regarded the oppression he faced and endured coming out as a Ukrainian-Canadian within his cultural heritage as the same as faced by his friend. No, it was different, his friend replied.

The lesson woke him up to, he writes in his program notes, "the virulent homophobia some Jamaicans face and how I might be connected to it." He was also "inspired/provoked" by a touring production of a socially minded dance work "To Be Straight with You" from the UK. "The piece tackles homophobia across the globe through danced and spoken delivery of verbatim interview transcripts that dealt with the intersectionality of race, religion and sexuality. The piece had us hearing from both the perpetrators and the victims of social intolerance."

"Small Axe" is essentially comprised of monologues, in the spirit of American actress/playwright Anna Deavere Smith to whom Kushnir refers. She is famed for her documentary style of theatre in such acclaimed plays as "Fires in the Mirror" and "Twilight: Los Angeles, 1992."

The play begins with Kushnir standing front and centre down stage with a monologue. He explains why he wrote the play and what we are about to hear. As the lights come up on the five black actors standing on scaffolding, he asks them questions as each take a turn delivering their monologues and replying to him in various voices. They tell stories taken from the more than 50 Jamaican and Jamaican-Canadians he had interviewed. We hear the voices of refugees, activists, journalists, Pride Week celebrants, priests and ministers, artists... essentially queer people of color.

Some monologues are intense, others playful, teasing and comic and still others witty and even threatening and angry as they reveal stories of homophobia and even hatred that leads to murder.

Dressed casually in a sports jacket, oxford blue shirt and jeans, Kushnir wanders as he listens intensely, his posture erect, his shoulders back, his attitude open and earnest, his face expressionless, framed by his black, curly (kucherawy) hair. (Spoiler alert, yes, kucherawy is Ukrainian for curly.)

After these monologists bare their souls, Kushnir's character has a breakdown, screaming and heaving the scaffolds around. The black monologists climb down to sit among the audience in the front role as they continue how to explore how people are interconnected despite their cultural and societal differences.

This is brave, powerful stuff.

In a brief interview, Kushnir told me of a Jamaican who was brave enough to let his own name, Maurice, stand. He is a professor and lectured in the Caribbean. I happen to be acquainted with him and know his story and the threats he has endured. For example, the Toronto Star's report of his marriage to another man was picked up by a paper in the Caribbean. Howls of outrage resulted from mobs who threatened his life and even posted his license plate on Facebook.

He escaped back to Canada where he has now settled. Continued threats of violence still prevent him from returning.

Throughout "Small Axe's" development, Kushnir and Alan Dilworth worked with many collaborators, the show's press release says, including Jamaican and Jamaican-Canadian community leaders. One of them is Gareth Henry, a Toronto activist, who says "`Small Axe' will definitely allow for transformative action to occur as it challenges attitudes, perceptions, culture and behavior - not just those of the community, but all communities. The play is not about shame or blame. It is about how we communicate with one another around injustice and inspire mutual responsibility."

Yes, this is a good, strong start, but it's not the entire story. I want to see and hear more.

In his future work, perhaps Kushnir can explore such phenomena as black on black racism, shadeism (racism among blacks based on the degree of their skin pigmentation and the nature of their hair and facial features), Island blacks' resentment, even hatred of American blacks and black anti-Semitism. These are tough issues that challenge sensitive, politically correct views.

And there are other issues that could become themes.

"The thing about black history is that the truth is so much more complex than anything you could make up," says Dr. Henry Louis Gates, Jr., Director of the Hutchins Center for African and African American Research at Harvard University.

An example is the black class system. "Diversity does not mean black and white only," Dr. Gates said. " It's not white versus black any more: It's haves versus have-nots. Unless the black middle-classes unite to promote the interests of the black underclass, tension between them is inevitable. What we, the black middle class have to do, is think of a strategy to avert that..."

Dr. Gates says the cause of poverty is both structural and behavioral and that must be recognized. To address behavior, he calls for "a moral revolution" within black communities. "Look - no white racist makes you get pregnant when you are a black teenager."

I also would have liked to see this production framed within a Canadian context. Most of us are proud we live in a multicultural society. Regardless of differences in our race, class and culture, language and gender, ability and our physical and cognitive challenges, we continue to thrive within a country that is admired internationally.

It's often been observed we're not a melting pot like the United States, but a mosaic within which we are encouraged to preserve and practice the cultures of our birth within the rubric of Canadian patriotism.

More than half-a-century ago, Prime Minister Pierre Trudeau outlined his vision of a united Canada that he called "a Just Society." He defined it as "the most humane and compassionate society possible."

A docu-theatre production such as "Small Axe" challenges us to ask whether a "Just Society" remains within our grasp or is it only a bromide of unfulfilled promises. Can we still achieve it in our increasingly cynical era?

"Small Axe" addresses difference, a word that describes not only Canadians but citizens of the world. We are all unique. We are all individual. We are all different in some way with our own gifts and talents. Canadians, in particular, generally have learned ... of course with exceptions ... to embrace and celebrate our differences, not attack each other because of them. Daily, we struggle to resist the governance of cynicism and fear so we can be who we are, so we can live fulsome lives and celebrate our potential as not merely fully participating citizens, but human beings in all the wonder that implies.

"Small Axe" is a clarion call, reminding us of the vast possibilities of Pierre Trudeau's "Just Society" within which, he promised "the rights of the minorities will be safe from the whims of intolerant majorities."

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