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Culture Stage

SIA’s survivors

SIA by Matthew MacKenzie, directed by Nina Lee Aquino. Presented by Cahoots at the Factory Theatre Studio (125 Bathurst). Previews begin Saturday (March 24), opens Tuesday (March 27) and runs to April 15, Tuesday-Saturday 8 pm, matinees Saturday-Sunday (except March 24) 2:30 pm. $18.75-$30, Sunday pwyc, previews $11.50, stu/srs $13.75-$25. 416-504-9971. See listing.


Matthew Mackenzie’s award-winning SIA explores the tragedy of young people who grow up too quickly.

A hit at the 2010 Fringe, the play centres on the kidnapping of Nick, a 20-something Canadian working in a Ghanaian refugee camp, by Abraham, a Liberian refugee. Abraham plans to ransom Nick to save the life of his 11-year-old sister, the title character.

“I’ve been three times to Ghana, which has had an enormous Liberian population since civil strife began in Liberia in the 1990s,” says MacKenzie. “I’m always struck by the children who were weaponized at an early age, the child soldiers represented by Abraham in my play.

“When these youngsters were taken off the battlefield, they had to deal with a lasting legacy of violence,” says the playwright. “Something like 60 per cent of combatants in the war were children, in the front line doing the hard fighting.”

MacKenzie shakes his head in amazement.

“The flip side of that is a figure like Nick, who goes off to save the world. He has admirable ideals, but he’s a kid himself.

“It fascinates me that in the West we send young people to the far corners of the globe – either with the military or as volunteers to work with local people – when they don’t have enough real-life experience to exercise those ideals properly.”

In SIA, which grew out of these parallels, MacKenzie works to make both young men and their viewpoints sympathetic to the audience.

“Abraham’s had a hard life without much of an adolescence he was suddenly asked to be a full-on adult. And just as Abraham’s a soldier with a gun, I see Nick as a soldier of the left trying to help or have an impact – whatever that means – in a world he doesn’t really understand.”

MacKenzie spent a “mind-boggling” time in the Buduburam refugee settlement in 2003, the same camp referred to in SIA, and through a series of connections spoke with many of its residents.

Download associated audio clip.

He returned to Buduburam in 2007 and met Abbie Kamara, the 11-year-old spokesperson for the newly formed Liberian Dance Troupe. Impressed by her and the group itself, which uses the arts to raise awareness of issues relevant to youngsters, MacKenzie became the Canadian liaison for the company, leading a campaign to raise money to build a Liberian home for the group. (See liberiandancetroupe.com and cahoots.ca/productions/present/sia.)

“Abbie was Sia for me,” recalls the playwright, “strong-willed, able to roll with anything, intelligent beyond her years, seeing herself as the equal of everyone around her, able to disarm you with the simplest of questions.

“Like her, my Sia is something of an angel. She became a driving engine for me, the character who would not let me walk away from the play when I had moments of doubt.”

Additional Interview Clip

MacKenzie’s trips to Africa and many North Americans’ knowledge of the continent:

Download associated audio clip.

jonkap@nowtoronto.com

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