Churchill brings controversy to Master Playwright Festival

CHURCHILLFEST 2010 could be the most controversial Master Playwright Festival yet and not solely because Caryl Churchill is the first female to be honoured.

Although Churchill is by far the least known of the dramatists celebrated in the event's first nine years, organizers are confident she will prove she belongs with the likes of past subjects such as Beckett, Pinter and Stoppard. Based on her reputation, the London-based playwright promises to be as topical as Mamet, as weird as Albee and be as much the political provocateur as Brecht.

At a press conference yesterday at the Manitoba Museum launching ChurchillFest, producers were adamant she is, at least, the most unpredictable of contemporary playwrights.

"She pushes the envelope," says Ann Hodges, who will direct one of Churchill's best plays Top Girls. "She's always changing the playing field, shifting the form. At least once during the festival people will say, `I've never seen that on stage before.' They will probably say that every play."

At 72, she is not some shy grandmother afraid of ruffling anyone's feathers. ChurchillFest could see some nasty words exchanged over her newest work, Seven Jewish Children, a 10-minute playlet penned quickly in response to Israel's assault on the Gaza Strip in 2008-09. Last February's public performance in London ignited a flurry of accusations it was anti-Semitic propaganda. A Toronto production last year brought similar denunciations, including from B'Nai Brith.

Seven Jewish Children is one of 17 plays to be staged or read during the Jan. 21-Feb.8 event.

Eggshell Theatre Company -- consisting of University of Manitoba assistant professor Bill Kerr and his political theatre students -- is presenting it 6 p.m. January 24 at the Gas Station Theatre.

"If you're having a festival of Churchill plays, you have to do Seven Jewish Children," says Kerr following the press conference held in front of an incongruous diorama of Churchill, Manitoba. "I was profoundly moved by it and scared by it. Doing this play is like yelling 'fire,' in a crowded room. We will have a discussion after the show. I don't believe it's anti-Semitic."

Michael Nathanson, WJT artistic producer, supports every theatre's right to produce any play it wants but invokes the right not to have to watch anything he regards as offensive. He's read the play and watched a performance on line.

"As a Jew, I'm well within my rights to say this piece is anti-Semitic," he says, during an interview yesterday.

Churchill's playlist reveals her interests are all over the map. In Cloud Nine she critiques colonialism while in Mad Forest she dissects the politics of dictatorship of Romania's former Ceausescu regime. In her sharp satire Serious Money she took a shot at London's greed-is-good business practices and another at American foreign policy in Drunk Enough to Say I Love You.

SDLqWhen Churchill is great, she's great and when she's obscure and bizarre, she's very obscure and bizarre," says Nathanson, who counts himself a fan.

ChurchillFest programs are available at MTC and around town. To buy a $69 ChurchillPass which gets you into all the shows and lectures, call the MTC box office at 942-6537.

kevin.prokosh@freepress.mb.ca

Republished from the Winnipeg Free Press print edition January 12, 2010 C3