Audience is asked to move as well as think
Every theatre company in existence, as varied as they be in mandate, budget or style, has a shared desire: more “bums in seats.”
But as it kicks off its 50th season, Factory Theatre wants the opposite of bums in seats. Both it and playwright Carmen Aguirre want feet on the floor, hips in motion and hands in the air.
Factory plays host to Aguirre’s solo show “Broken Tailbone,” which is part theatre, part history lecture and part salsa dance lesson and, with its 15 salsa songs, will challenge the audience to move their bodies as their brains take in Aguirre’s words.
It weaves Aguirre’s personal experiences as a Chilean immigrant growing up in Vancouver with stories about the role that Latinx dance halls have played as sites for revolution, protest and identity.
They’re topics familiar to anyone who’s a fan of Aguirre’s work, including her Canada Reads-winning memoir “Something Fierce,” and plays like “Chili Con Carne” and “The Refugee Hotel.”
Whether it’s a page in a book or the fourth wall in a theatre, Aguirre is used to some form of separation between her and the audience, but she wanted to dismantle that for “Broken Tailbone.”
“(The audience) takes in these stories in a different way, in a more embodied way … Audiences have told us they feel very safe doing so in the format we’ve created; inherently, it’s very visceral,” she said from Vancouver, ahead of her arrival in Toronto for the show’s opening on Oct. 3.
“But I think what’s exciting about the show is that it’s accessible and confrontational at the same time. They can see me, I can see them, I’m talking directly to them. They can’t hide in the dark, they’re a part of the show, the most important part of the show.”
The push-and-pull of “Broken Tailbone” is clear in its title; chosen by Aguirre and director Brian Quirt for its relation to one of Aguirre’s personal stories, but also because it’s simultaneously alluring and warning, funny and unpleasant. It’s also sexy, which is a deliberate choice by Aguirre.
“In 2019, it’s still out of the ordinary to have a woman of colour of a certain age — I’m almost 52 — taking up that much space on a Canadian stage in an unapologetic way, talking overtly about sex, for example. Not performing any kind of gratitude to the mainstream in any way, shape or form. We still get feedback from people telling us they’ve never seen that,” she said.
Aguirre has always been conscious of Latin bodies onstage, or lack thereof, particularly at Factory Theatre. “Broken Tailbone” marks her return to the company since she pulled her play “The Refugee Hotel” from its world premiere in Factory’s 2004 season, when its Latin American characters were cast with white actors.
“That was an extremely controversial thing to do at that time, so I think people remember that, certainly in the Toronto theatre community,” she said.
Though there has been progress in representation and career opportunities for theatre makers of colour in Canada, Aguirre still sees instances of whitewashing, citing Toronto and Vancouver productions of Stephen Adly Guirgis’s “The Motherf--ker with the Hat” in which non-Latin actors were in at least one of its Latin roles — echoing her protests around her own play in the early 2000s.
“That was a conversation that was very much being had at that time. People forget whose shoulders they are standing on,” she said. “I was absolutely vilified. I was raked over the coals. It’s very easy to call a woman of colour crazy. And I think it still happens when you do something quote unquote unpopular.
“To be blunt, I believe in freedom of speech. And I will speak out against cancel culture all the time,” she said.
Recently, Aguirre was a vocal supporter of Sky Gilbert during a controversy with Buddies in Bad Times Theatre, the company he co-founded in the 1970s, when a play reading was cancelled amid complaints about a blog post on Gilbert’s website that was perceived to be anti-trans.
Along with Gilbert, Aguirre is one of four artists signed to a new initiative to address “a quiet chill on the Canadian arts scene” through a series of public talks “to inaugurate a respectful discussion about these important issues,” describing the trend as “regressive, anti-art and anti-human (their emphasis).”
Nina Lee Aquino, Factory Theatre’s artistic director, sees this element of Aguirre’s persona as a benefit to her work.
“I think what draws me to her work is that she isn’t afraid to shake the status quo. She pours everything that she is into the stories she brings to the stage, which results in powerful, unrelenting, courageous and unflinchingly authentic stories,” said Aquino in an email.
Aquino has commissioned Aguirre to adapt Molière’s “The Learned Ladies” “through the lens of the #MeToo movement.” It’s the first work in development as part of Factory’s The Classics Project, hiring women writers who are Black, Indigenous or people of colour to adapt or translate works from the global canon.
“I’m not interested in looking back at what happened and who did what to who. All I know is that when that event happened (in 2004), it was important and seismic,” Aquino said, adding that all that matters to her now is that “Broken Tailbone” has arrived.
“It means forgiveness, it means a reconciliation of sorts, it means moving forward. It means acknowledging the past, but not dwelling on it; that ultimately, the work (and Carmen’s voice) that deserves to be seen and witnessed by our audiences, will finally happen this season,” she said.