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March 6, 2009
The Glass Box is full
Play covers issues of identity and assimilation.
SUSAN J. KATZ
As Jews, we're obsessed with questions of identity: assimilation and identity." These are the words of Joanna Garfinkel, director and dramaturge for Theatre Terrific's newest professional play, The Glass Box.
Garfinkel said in an interview with the Jewish Independent, "This play is not directly Jewish, yet it is about perceptions in the larger world. Jewish people out in the community at large are always aware of 'otherness,' despite assimilation. We don't get to pick our identity, the universe does that; others identify us. We may think we are Madonna, but others don't. What if we get to say who we are?"
This question was played out in The Glass Box production, as a 54-year-old wife and mother, a 23-year-old woman living with quadriplegia and a 32-year-old gentleman with Down's syndrome are given the once-in-a-lifetime chance to play the iconic figure of their dreams – actress Sophia Loren, Egyptian Pharaoh Cleopatra and actor Brad Pitt, respectively. Ensconced in a glass box in an offbeat talk show, the three switched between fantasy and reality, music and storytelling, revealing stories with humor and frankness.
Assimilation, and "fitting in" are familiar themes that Jews struggle with in the Diaspora. We may visibly resemble our non-Jewish neighbors, but, according to Garfinkel, "I feel like others in the Jewish community; no one really 'passes.' Passing is labor-intensive. When you get tired, defences get down and your identity fences crack."
Garfinkel added, "It's the same for people with disabilities; some disabilities are visible, but others are not, and those people spend a whole lot of time and energy 'passing.'" Garfinkel said she feels she has had at times to be an ambassador for all Jewish people. She recalled how she used to dress in extreme punk to get negative attention from the police, but a black person told her, "Yes, well, you can take your costume off."
"It's not the same attention.
At the end of the day, it's really who can take the costume off and who can't."
Susanna Uchatius, the director, devisor, writer and a performer in The Glass Box, added, "If you have a visible disability, the elephant is obvious. This play allows three characters to go where they are usually not allowed to go." Garfinkel added, "We're not trying to trick anyone into thinking [writer and performer] Kyla [Harris] is foxy and not a quadriplegic. The power of theatre is, as Thornton Wilder suggested, 'I knew this was true, but not until I saw it here.' "
Theatre Terrific Society (TTS) is an inclusive theatre company that creates opportunities for artists with disabilities to participate in theatre. TTS's original plays explore thought-provoking themes of universal interest, and are unique in their use of very diverse casts. The company productions employ both professional and emerging actors and include a wide range of actors with and without disabilities.
Uchatius likens the inspiration for The Glass Box to the play Return to Sender, written by Heidi Janz, a 30-year-old woman with cerebral palsy who was inspired to write the play after Saskatchewan farmer Robert Latimer was convicted in 1994 of murdering his daughter, Tracy. Tracy was extremely disabled by cerebral palsy.
Garfinkel emphasized that TTS is not about marching with banners for social change, but to set out to create an enjoyable theatre experience. "I want to see what happens when Watson Moy says he's Brad Pitt. A play simply about sex and the disabled is about pain and is depressing." Uchatius added, "Some people will come with pity and voyeurism, maybe they'll leave without it."
The Glass Box is no longer in theatres but for more information about the Theatre Terrific Society, its website is www.theatreterrific.ca.
Susan J. Katz is a Vancouver freelance writer.
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