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Culture Stage

Preview: 9 Parts Of Desire

9 PARTS OF DESIRE by Heather Raffo, directed by Kelly Straughan, with Aviva Armour-Ostroff, Christine Aubin Khalifah, Lili Francks, Deborah Grover, Brittany Kay, Anusree Roy, Melissa Jane Shaw, Maryem Hassan Tollar and Toni Ellwand (Seventh Stage Theatre). At the Theatre Centre (1087 Queen West). Opens Wednesday (May 19) and runs to May 23, Wednesday-Saturday 8 pm, Sunday 7 pm, matinees Saturday and Sunday 2 pm. $20-$25, weekend matinee rush pwyc. 416-538-0988. See listings.


The battle cry of freedom resonates through 9 Parts Of Desire. It’s a cry of yearning by each of the play’s nine Iraqi women.[rssbreak]

But in this series of monologues by Heather Raffo, each woman sees that freedom from a different perspective.

One is an artist who enjoys making portraits of her naked body in a culture that increasingly requires that women be covered another is an exile who despairs of her revolutionary past a third is a youngster who fantasizes about Justin Timberlake when she sees American soldiers.

All, though, must face the destructive war in their homeland.

“It’s an incredible play to stage, simply because much of the material is so hard to listen to,” says Melissa Jane Shaw, artistic producer of Seventh Stage Theatre.

“The through-line of freedom is a powerful one, but just as important is that each character decide what it is she wants. Each struggles to provide an answer to that question.”

Playwright Raffo played all the roles when she premiered the show. The Toronto staging is the first professional one to feature nine women from diverse backgrounds.

The impressive cast, which includes Aviva Armour-Ostroff, Deborah Grover, Lili Francks, Anusree Roy and actor/musician Maryem Hassan Tollar, is directed by Kelly Straughan.

“After Seventh Stage did Whale Music, we knew we wanted to stage a show that was political and made a difference,” recalls Shaw. “I went to New York three times and met with women-based companies like ours, asking them for suggestions.

“Though I ended up with 100 scripts, I decided on 9 Parts after reading only five pages. No other play offers nine such amazing parts for women, and it fits our mandate exactly.”

The characters, who inhabit some 20 years of contemporary history, are all “hooked together through blood. No matter where the characters are in the world or at what point in time, blood is forever connected.”

Shaw plays “the American,” an Iraqi woman living in New York who can’t turn away from the battles played out on her television she’s always looking for members of her family in the conflict.

“This woman is trying to figure out what’s happening in a society where people have become animals. In the post-9/11 world, she sees the demons on both sides of the situation as a result, she faces some really dark questions.”

The performer finds that in her research she’s been echoing some of her character’s actions, watching endless YouTube footage to get a grasp of what’s happening across the world.

“It’s depressing and hard. When you think you have a semblance of an opinion or answer, you’re defeated by another argument. In this era of mass media, you can hook into anyone’s point of view.”

The intimacy of the presentation is sure to up the production’s intensity, for each of the characters speaks directly to the audience.

“That’s the key to getting people to listen – by treating viewers as if they were friends and helpers.

“We don’t intend that viewers feel a weight is being loaded on them, but rather that a weight is lifted from them. We’ve all shared at some level what it’s like to live in a traumatic time in which horrific acts happen around the world.”

jonkap@nowtoronto.com

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