Theatre, art, and political correctness
It’s not difficult to visualize acclaimed Canadian dramaturge Iris Turcott. She’s exuberant and inquisitive, curious and insightful, and almost telepathically observant. Turcott’s Nov. 18 guest lecture at Massey Hall touched on topics surrounding censorship, artists and their art, and the flawed notion of political correctness.
Turcott’s connection with her audience is kinetic; her body moves with every word she exclaims. Clinging to each idea she forms, her cadence is dictated by her every thought – each sentence connects into another idea, with each idea connecting to form a remarkably detailed and coherent imagining.
Looking for a straight answer is almost juvenile; each of Turcott’s ideas unite to deliver a comprehensive explanation for her opinion.
Beyond her theatricality, Turcott identifies as a writer – her roles as dramaturge at Canadian Stage, co-founder and co-artistic director of Playbill Theatre, and dramaturge at the internationally known Theatre of Marionettes, precedes her name.
Her desire to be among writers instead of actors is derivative of her theory on artistic creation.
“I wanted to be at the genesis of idea,” Turcott said of her need to be with writers. “I like to be involved in the pregnancy [of theatre]. Theatre is a collaborative art form, and actors collaborate, but writers start everything.”
Invited to share her experiences, Turcott doesn’t shrink at the notion of being loud and subjective. On the contrary, her opinions move as freely as her body – her improvised gesticulations rehearsed for more than 30 years.
Though her thesis was introduced at the beginning of her lecture, Turcott’s audience connection was established well before she took the stage. She spoke to students, asked about their lives, and even made a point to memorize key details about their histories.
Improvising the majority of her lecture, Turcott often stopped to compliment her host, acclaimed playwright, close friend, and University of Guelph professor, Judith Thompson. Utilizing her small audience and pre-lecture interviews to great effect, Turcott made a point of singling students out to ask for their opinions and their involvement.
Using the fallout surrounding Colleen Murphy’s 2012 production, Pig Girl, Turcott made it clear that she doesn’t believe that one should censor art. Murphy’s work, about an Aboriginal girl viciously brutalized by serial-killer Robert Pickton, has garnered strong criticism from critics, fellow playwrights, and the Aboriginal community.
Many feel that Murphy’s play, which features the girl and her attacker on stage throughout, tackles the delicate subject of Pickton’s killing spree while the wounds are still too fresh. Others believe that Murphy, a white woman, was the wrong person to write on a topic that spotlights an Aboriginal problem.
Turcott argued that an artist should not be afraid of creating work they feel must be created.
“It’s dangerous to go about judgment in art,” Turcott explained. “I refuse to play this game [about] race and gender…an artist is someone who has to do something.”
On the topic of extraordinary actions, Turcott made the point that we shouldn’t ignore ordinary people. The actions of ordinary people are often as impressive as the actions of the people we idolize.
“I look up to Gandhi, but he was a paedophile,” Turcott explained. “It doesn’t change that he did great things, but he was also a paedophile. Ordinary people should be valorized for what they do every day, because what they do is just as impressive [as extraordinary people].”
Due to the nature of the lecture, Thompson’s interjections and often contradictory views added fresh insight into Turcott’s opinion.
“We argue a lot, but we never fight,” said Turcott on her relationship with Thompson. “It’s not about winning an argument, it’s about making discoveries.”
Thompson and Turcott’s vortex of ideas served to ground the lecture in subjective realism. Watching the two interact, one drew a picture of close friends who understand through their disagreements.
Turcott ended her lecture with a word on chasing one’s dreams:
“If you must tell the truth, if you must paint, if you must tell stories, if you must act, if you must write – do it. Otherwise you’ll just end up in a nuthouse.”