By JON KAPLAN
There’s a lot more to SummerWorks than the mainstage attractions, especially if you like your theatre with a political twist.
Last year the up-to-the-minute Wrecking Ball series was a late-night, one-off SummerWorks offering. The collaboration seems to have become a tradition, with tonight’s presentation of the sixth Wrecking Ball.
Wrecking Ball has two rules: plays must be based on current world events, and they have to be written in a week, rehearsed briefly and presented to an audience. Think of it as lightly seared theatre, blood-red at the centre.
Introduced by Lara Azzopardi, David Jansen, Ross Manson and Andrew Soren, the 10 pm show plays at Theatre Passe Muraille.
Given the pedigrees of the writers and the topics they’ve chosen, expect an exciting evening.
Linda Griffiths (Maggie And Pierre, Alien Creature) takes a look at Conrad Black as he tries to smooth-talk his way back into Canada’s good graces…and get back his citizenship.
Richard Sanger (Not Spain, Two Words For Snow), with Briony Glassco, offers five sketches on the theme of competition, with characters including Mats Sundin, sports and business mogul Larry Tannenbaum, Black’s former friend and associate David Radler and — hey, why not? — Black himself.
And for the first time, the series ventures into the world of opera, with a piece about the black-market sale of human organs. Following their 2006 Rhubarb! collaboration Shattered Glass, composer Njo Kong Kie and Douglas Rodger reunite for this piece.
And if you crave more music, the evening’s special guest is Torquil Campbell, lead singer of Stars.
Eda Holmes, Michael Rubenfeld and Ashlie Corcoran direct the staged readings. Rubenfeld also directed Yogyakarta, currently running as part of SummerWorks at the Tarragon Extra Space so is Tijuana Cure, which Corcoran helmed. Corcoran just finished a year as a member of the Canadian Opera Company Ensemble.
Proceeds for the evening go to the Actor’s Fund of Canada.
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