Readings
The New Groundswell Festival
Readings Series
The Enchanted Loom by Suvendrini Lena
Thangan is a Sri Lankan Tamil poet living in Toronto. Humbled by intractable epilepsy, he makes a desperate decision to have surgery in order to stave off the dissolution of his family. In his seizures, the image of his three year old son, Kavalan, whom he lost during the civil war appears. If he stops the seizures through surgery, will he lose his only connection to his child?
Saturday, March 16, 5pm, Nightwood Studio, PWYC
Four Sisters by Susanna Fournier
After massive war and widespread plague, Sarah, a former brothel owner in the ghetto, tries to raise four little girls left orphaned by the women she once employed. When a doctor reveals the girls are plague positive she offers to treat them for free with an experimental new drug. In three acts spanning over fifty years, this play chronicles 6 women attempting to reconcile the echoes of their past, present and future in a violent world calling out for revolution.
Tuesday, March 19, 5pm, Nightwood Studio, PWYC
Refuge by Mary Vingoe
Refuge tells the story of a former soldier from Eritrea who has arrived in Canada without papers and seeks refugee status. Seen through the eyes of the couple that take him in and the lawyer who represents him, the play lays bare some of the shortfalls of the refugee system as it exists in Canada today. Refuge combines two distinct aesthetics: ‘verbatim’ text drawn from a set of interviews done for CBC radio into the fictional world of the characters involved.
Thursday, March 21, 5pm, Nightwood Studio, PWYC
The Trial of Tina Modotti by Carmen Aguirre
The Trial of Tina Modotti is an examination of the famous 1920s photographer and revolutionary’s life. It explores the tension between giving one’s life to one’s art and giving one’s life to a cause. The role of art in politics and politics in art was a core query in her life. The play asks the question: what is the purpose of art in the face of human suffering?
*presented in partnership with Alameda Theatre Company
Friday, March 22, 5pm, Nightwood Studio, PWYC
Write From The Hip Readings
Write from the Hip, our emerging playwrights program, presents two provocative new works for the stage. Groundswell will mark the first public workshop readings of Leah-Simone Bowen’s The Flood and Clara Pasieka’s Bejide.
Sunday, March 24, 5pm, Nightwood Studio, PWYC
