You may have heard the one about Rob Ford and the Flipped Bird, but have you heard about Rob Ford and the Mysterious Case of the Flying Anarchist?
While the first is defintily rooted in reality (despite some disputes over the facts), the second is an unabashed fiction, a political romp, but that nonetheless hopes to touch on the reality of the aftermath of the G20 protests and mass arrests in Toronto last summer.
Written and co-produced by Toronto-raised Montrealer Matt Jones, RFMCFA premiered at the Toronto Fringe Festival earlier this summer. On Wednesday, Aug. 3rd, the piece opens in Montreal for a four day run at Théâtre Ste-Catherine.
An adaptation of Nobel laureate Dario Fo's classic 1970's play Accidental Death of an Anarchist, Jones brings us into a fictional future Toronto of 2018 where the G20 - and the related protests - have returned and Ford remains mayor.
An anarchist protester has died afer falling from the window of an interrogation room, and Rob Ford (played to strong reviews in Toronto by Kyle Allatt) may or may not have sent them to their death. It's up to the Maniac, played by Susanna Jones (the playwrite's sister), to find out what really happened.
How will the piece fare in Montreal, which isn't reknowned for looking kindly on the Queen City? The play is more an examination of the G20 and it's aftermath, says Jones, than simply a send-up of Ford, although it does have fun with Toronto's new outspoken mayor and the city's beleagured police chief, Bill Blair.
Combining fiction with verbatim quotes from Blair & Ford and video from the G20 itself, Jones hopes it helps create spaces for interpretation of what happened at the ptotests other than what appeared on television screens across the country. "It's a way of feeling confident in presenting another view of what happened at the G20 protests than what appeared in the mainstream media,"he says.
And while it's definitely a comedy, the piece has a serious message: With a very conservative mayor in Toronto and Stephen Harper winning a majority, Jones thinks we need to seriously consider what road our country is heading down and what it will mean in the coming decades. "We need to imagine what could happen at a G20 in the future," he says.
Rob Ford and the Mysterious Case of the Flying Anarchist plays at Theatre Ste-Catherine, 264 Ste-Catherine Est, from Aug. 3 to 6 at 7:30pm. Tickets are $10. Details or to buy tickets: http://www.theatrestecatherine.com. For more details on the play, visit: http://blacklistcommittee.wordpress.com/mysterious-case-of-the-flying-anarchist/.
