GAS GIRLS by Donna-Michelle St. Bernard, directed by Philip Adams, with Peter Bailey, Nawa Nicole Simon, Jamie Robinson and Dienye Waboso (New Harlem). At Theatre Passe Muraille Backspace (16 Ryerson). Opens tonight (Thursday, November 5) and runs to November 14, Tuesday-Saturday 8 pm, matinee Saturday 2:30 pm. $15. 416-504-7529. See listing.
In Donna-Michelle St. Bernard’s Gas Girls, the fuel doesn’t just fire machines. It also sparks sexual exchanges between characters.[rssbreak]
Two young women, Gigi and Lola, sell their bodies for gas their clients are truckers who stop near the border of an African country. Gigi understands the business Lola is just learning her trade. Both yearn for something more than a quick fuck.
“The story comes from Zimbabwe, but it’s not specifically set there, since I’ve never visited the country,” says St. Bernard. “The play is part of a mission for me – to look at Africa not as a monolithic continent but rather a collection of 54 countries.”
Her interest began four years ago with GuluWalk, a Canadian-inspired effort to highlight the plight of Ugandan children who trekked every night to towns to escape violence and kidnapping by a paramilitary group. Involved with a now-defunct band called The Awakening, St. Bernard wrote songs about the children.
“But I’m a wordslinger” – she’s also known as hip-hop and spoken-word artist Belladonna – “and when I got more involved in playwriting, I thought that would be a better outlet for what I want to do,” says St. Bernard, whose delivery is rapid-fire.
“I intend to create some sort of theatre or dance piece about every African country, recognizing the challenges that each faces.”
St. Bernard has begun four plays so far, one in the Obsidian Playwrights Unit, but Gas Girls is the first to reach the stage. It comes with a pedigree, having won the Emerging PlayRites Award at Calgary’s Alberta Theatre Projects and second place in the national Herman Voaden Playwriting Competition.
“I came across a news article about women at a Zimbabwean truck stop who trade gas for services. And then Philip Adams, who became dramaturge and director for Gas Girls, sent me an article about a woman in Virginia who had sex for a gas card.
“That’s when I realized the situation wasn’t specific to one country, and the piece became more concept- than research-driven. I never intended to write about the role of gas in the economy of Zimbabwe. I don’t understand economics, but I do understand people and wanted to explore how gas affected individuals.”
When she workshopped the play in SummerWorks 2008, writer Emma Beltrán said that for her the piece wasn’t about gas and Zimbabwe, but rather about water and Chile.
“I see Gas Girls now as a piece about how women survive in a place of scarcity, a topic that reflects various situations around the world.”
jonkap@nowtoronto.com
