Podcasts and scripts help ease vaccine tensions
Many British Columbians are facing a tough choice this holiday season: how should they deal with relatives and other loved ones who refuse to be immunized against COVID-19? With 8.7 percent of B.C. residents still completely unvaccinated, this will likely lead to uncomfortable conversations at some dinner tables—or even over whether the unvaccinated should be allowed into the host’s home.
Like many Canadians, Jay Dodge knows people who haven’t been vaccinated against COVID-19. In a phone interview with the Straight, the artistic producer of Boca del Lupo theatre company says that vaccine hesitancy can come in many forms—and he worries that this issue has the potential to drive a wedge this month within families and communities.
“When these conversations come up, they’re rarely expected or anticipated,” Dodge says. “We’re often caught off guard.”
That’s one reason why Boca del Lupo has teamed up with Vancouver’s Dr. Peter Centre on a project called Dialogues for the Vaccine Hesitant and Those Who Love Them. According to Dodge, these are like “practised conversations for difficult situations”.
The dialogues are actually four short scripts written by Canadian playwrights exploring different causes of vaccine hesitancy.
The scripts are also available as podcasts, with two to four actors in each. The scripts and podcasts will be available for free starting on December 14.
“We thought that leading up to our winter break would be a good time to get them out into the world as people are gathering again with friends and family, not all of which might have the same views on the vaccine,” Dodge says. “Yet they are all people who, presumably, you want to have around your family table.”
As an example, Vancouver actor-director Omari Newton’s script for Vaxx Pass features a discussion between four people of colour, three of whom are vaccinated against COVID-19. The play is set in a dance studio– art gallery in East Van where a 29-year-old Black man, Amare, is leading them in complex choreographed dance moves.
Two of the dancers, a 22-year-old Filipino man named Junior and a 24-yearold Filipina named Sosa, download their vaccine passports at Amare’s request. All three are shocked when the fourth member of the troupe, a 25-year-old Black man named Chi, says that he’s not vaccinated. Moreover, he’s extremely suspicious of science and what’s been reported about COVID-19 in the mainstream media.
Dodge says that there are some people who will never be convinced to take a COVID-19 vaccine. The scripts are intended to show how people can respond, whether that hesitant person is simply opposed to modern science or, perhaps, is a child with a fear of needles. In addition, Dodge emphasizes that these verbal exchanges show ways that someone who subscribes to conspiracy theories about COVID-19 might not succeed in spreading those views to others in the family.
“In some ways, it’s more about giving people a chance to practise a version of a conversation that they might be faced with in the moment,” Dodge says.
Other participating playwrights are Yvette Nolan, Mary-Colin Chisholm, and Karen Hines. Nolan worked with registered clinical counsellor Clement Fong in exploring how to reduce harm created by misinformation about vaccines while maintaining empathy to keep the conversation going.
“We often think harm reduction deals with needles and safe-injection sites,” Dodge says. “But harm reduction is a larger concept.”