Cherry Docs stamps out prejudice
Heather Solomon, The Canadian Jewish News, April 2, 2009
When Gabrielle Soskin was looking for a play with social significance to fit the mandate of her theatre company, Persephone Productions, she knew she'd found it in Cherry Docs.
The plot revolves around a Jewish legal aid lawyer assigned to defend a neo-Nazi skinhead who has allegedly kicked a man to death because he was the "wrong" colour. The emotional fireworks are not only between lawyer and defendant, but within their respective minds as they try to come to grips with their prejudices and the notion of justice.
Cherry Docs takes its name from the red Doc Martens boots that are popular with white supremacists, and Soskin says the play will kick apart preconceptions on both sides of the issue. "It's not a courtroom drama nor does it have legal jargon. It's got a very human face on it. It is a debate, a play of ideas and the characters are beautifully drawn," says Soskin. "Part of it is set in the prison where the offender is awaiting trial, part is in the home of the lawyer and the rest is in the interview room outside the cell where the lawyer is trying to get his case together."
The audience will feel the tension and the intimacy of the two men's struggle, taking place as it will in the smallish Théâtre Ste- Catherine from April 16 to 26. Auditions were two months ago, and Soskin recruited the casting help of her assistant director, Heidi Hawkins, who had previously acted in Persephone's subUrbia and who was a student of Soskin's when she taught at John Abbott College.
Hawkins was about to embark on her 10-day Taglit-Birthright trip to Israel where another production of Cherry Docs had a wildly successful run in Hebrew at Tel Aviv's Nephesh Theatre.
Dozens of applicants arrived at the Montreal auditions, including Dan Jeannotte, whom Hawkins recommended. He won the role of the skinhead and must shave off his hair and neat beard for the sake of his character, the troubled Mike Downey.
The haircut won't go to waste, because Jeannotte will be filming it with his improv/ skit comedy troupe Uncalled For, which has been a favourite at fringe festivals across Canada. "I worked in a show with Heidi at Mainline Theatre, but I've never done a show with this subject matter or intensity before," says Jeannotte, 27. "In Canada, we pride ourselves on being very multicultural and liberal thinkers, but a lot of people don't realize there is an underworld of aggressive racism."
Soskin hopes to attract students to the matinees. The play, she notes, is appropriate for students in Grade 9 and up.
Taking on the role of the Jewish lawyer is Sean Carney, 38, a Winnipeg native who holds a PhD in theatre from York University and is an assistant professor at McGill University, teaching both theory and dramatic practice. He also writes in scholarly theatre journals and directs students at Moyse Hall Theatre.
"I've been looking for opportunities to get involved in the local community, and this is a wonderful character-driven piece for the actors," he says. "Because I'm not Jewish, I've been researching a lot to play Danny Dunkelman. He considers himself to be a liberal diasporic Toronto Jew, yet he's very spiritual in that he's interested in kabbalistic mysticism. "He's reluctant to defend this person at first, but his father instilled certain values that he's trying to live up to. What strikes me is when Danny talks about his father's prayer shawl. It's a very evocative piece of writing."
Playwright David Gow, who is Jewish, and who has authored such plays as Relative Good and The Friedman Family Fortune (respectively staged at Centaur Theatre in 2008 and 1996), was motivated to write Cherry Docs in the 1990s by a skinhead incident in his hometown of Montreal. He wondered to himself how he might respond to a neo-Nazi skinhead and the drama evolved from there.
The cast is rehearsing in the imposing Gaston-Miron Building on Sherbrooke Street, which used to house the Grande Bibliothèque and is now beautifully refurbished as rehearsal space run by the Conseil des arts de Montréal. The actors are using the experience of ascending its grand staircase to the pillared entrance as a visual exercise in "approaching the bench of justice."
The audience will see how one Jewish man deals with the hate directed against him and that which he himself must resist.
When Gabrielle Soskin was looking for a play with social significance to fit the mandate of her theatre company, Persephone Productions, she knew she'd found it in Cherry Docs.
The plot revolves around a Jewish legal aid lawyer assigned to defend a neo-Nazi skinhead who has allegedly kicked a man to death because he was the "wrong" colour. The emotional fireworks are not only between lawyer and defendant, but within their respective minds as they try to come to grips with their prejudices and the notion of justice.
Cherry Docs takes its name from the red Doc Martens boots that are popular with white supremacists, and Soskin says the play will kick apart preconceptions on both sides of the issue. "It's not a courtroom drama nor does it have legal jargon. It's got a very human face on it. It is a debate, a play of ideas and the characters are beautifully drawn," says Soskin. "Part of it is set in the prison where the offender is awaiting trial, part is in the home of the lawyer and the rest is in the interview room outside the cell where the lawyer is trying to get his case together."
The audience will feel the tension and the intimacy of the two men's struggle, taking place as it will in the smallish Théâtre Ste- Catherine from April 16 to 26. Auditions were two months ago, and Soskin recruited the casting help of her assistant director, Heidi Hawkins, who had previously acted in Persephone's subUrbia and who was a student of Soskin's when she taught at John Abbott College.
Hawkins was about to embark on her 10-day Taglit-Birthright trip to Israel where another production of Cherry Docs had a wildly successful run in Hebrew at Tel Aviv's Nephesh Theatre.
Dozens of applicants arrived at the Montreal auditions, including Dan Jeannotte, whom Hawkins recommended. He won the role of the skinhead and must shave off his hair and neat beard for the sake of his character, the troubled Mike Downey.
The haircut won't go to waste, because Jeannotte will be filming it with his improv/ skit comedy troupe Uncalled For, which has been a favourite at fringe festivals across Canada. "I worked in a show with Heidi at Mainline Theatre, but I've never done a show with this subject matter or intensity before," says Jeannotte, 27. "In Canada, we pride ourselves on being very multicultural and liberal thinkers, but a lot of people don't realize there is an underworld of aggressive racism."
Soskin hopes to attract students to the matinees. The play, she notes, is appropriate for students in Grade 9 and up.
Taking on the role of the Jewish lawyer is Sean Carney, 38, a Winnipeg native who holds a PhD in theatre from York University and is an assistant professor at McGill University, teaching both theory and dramatic practice. He also writes in scholarly theatre journals and directs students at Moyse Hall Theatre.
"I've been looking for opportunities to get involved in the local community, and this is a wonderful character-driven piece for the actors," he says. "Because I'm not Jewish, I've been researching a lot to play Danny Dunkelman. He considers himself to be a liberal diasporic Toronto Jew, yet he's very spiritual in that he's interested in kabbalistic mysticism. "He's reluctant to defend this person at first, but his father instilled certain values that he's trying to live up to. What strikes me is when Danny talks about his father's prayer shawl. It's a very evocative piece of writing."
Playwright David Gow, who is Jewish, and who has authored such plays as Relative Good and The Friedman Family Fortune (respectively staged at Centaur Theatre in 2008 and 1996), was motivated to write Cherry Docs in the 1990s by a skinhead incident in his hometown of Montreal. He wondered to himself how he might respond to a neo-Nazi skinhead and the drama evolved from there.
The cast is rehearsing in the imposing Gaston-Miron Building on Sherbrooke Street, which used to house the Grande Bibliothèque and is now beautifully refurbished as rehearsal space run by the Conseil des arts de Montréal. The actors are using the experience of ascending its grand staircase to the pillared entrance as a visual exercise in "approaching the bench of justice."
The audience will see how one Jewish man deals with the hate directed against him and that which he himself must resist.
