Director voices fury at show’s cancellation
MONTREAL — Quebec stage director Robert Lepage broke his silence Friday on the abrupt cancellation of his controversial show SLAV, calling it a direct attack on artistic freedom.
The Montreal International Jazz Festival cancelled the show Wednesday amid heavy criticism it amounted to cultural appropriation because it featured a white woman and largely white cast singing songs composed by black slaves.
In a statement released through the Ex-Machina production company, Lepage said he would leave it to others to debate the issue of cultural appropriation, which he called “an extremely complicated problem” he could not pretend to be able to solve.
But the award-winning playwright, who has 40 years under his belt in theatre, said he is well-placed to speak about it from an artistic standpoint.
“To me, what is most appalling is the intolerant discourse heard both on the street and in some media,” Lepage said. “Everything that led to this cancellation is a direct blow to artistic freedom.”
Lepage said theatre is based on the principle of someone playing someone else or pretending to be someone else.
“Stepping into the shoes of another person to try to understand them and, in the process, perhaps understand ourselves, better,” he said. “This ancient ritual requires that we borrow, for the duration of a performance, someone else’s look, voice, accent and, at times, even gender.
“But when we are no longer allowed to step into someone else’s shoes, when it is forbidden to identify with someone else, theatre is denied its very nature, it is prevented from performing its primary function and is thus rendered meaningless.”
SLAV, one of the hottest tickets at this year’s jazz festival, was the subject of protests from its debut and was called out for appropriation of black culture and history. It was described as “a theatrical odyssey based on slave songs” and described by organizers as a journey “through traditional AfroAmerican songs, from cotton fields to construction sites, railroads, from slave songs to prison songs.”
Betty Bonifassi, a Montreal-based singer known for her Oscar-nominated work on the soundtrack of Les Triplettes de Belleville, was the main performer in the show.
After widespread criticism and the cancellation of a festival appearance by U.S. musician Moses Sumney because of SLAV, the jazz festival cancelled the remaining presentations and apologized to anyone offended by it.
Lepage said everyone involved in the project understood they were taking on a sensitive subject and that it fell on them to create a show “with diligence, respect, honesty and integrity.” They elected to remain silent in an “overcharged atmosphere” created by the show.
“As long as the show was being performed, it was speaking for itself and we didn’t have anything to add to the debate, which also allowed us to listen to the arguments of those who were opposed to our show being presented,” he said.