by Suvendrini Lena | A Theatre Passe Muraille and Aluna Theatre Co-Production
Writing by Roula Said | Photo by Jeremy Mimnagh | Transcription: “I wrote twenty lines about love”
A life full of love and resilience, in Gaza, is also a life interrupted by scarcity and bombardment. Rubble begins with Lena Khalaf Tuffaha’s viral poem, Running Orders, where an ordinary family receives a call:
Run.
You have 58 seconds from the end of this message.
Your house is next.
…
It doesn’t matter
that 58 seconds isn’t long enough
to find your wedding album
or your son’s favorite blanket
or your daughter’s almost completed college application
or your shoes
or to gather everyone in the house.
It doesn’t matter what you had planned.
It doesn’t matter who you are.
Prove you’re human.
Prove you stand on two legs.
Run.
At the same time, in an abandoned theatre, a poet recites from the celebrated poetry of Mahmoud Darwish (as translated by Fady Joudah) and asks the both timeless and urgent question: What is the meaning of poetry amidst a state of siege? And what is our responsibility as we read, write, hear, and witness the survival of the human spirit in poetry?
*A dramatic imagining of poetry, Rubble is made with permission from poet Lena Khalaf Tuffaha, and translator Fady Joudah.
Show Dates
February 25 to March 18, 2023
Running Time: 80 minutes
Location
Theatre Passe Muraille (16 Ryerson Avenue) Mainspace Theatre
Tickets
Pay-What-You-Can-Afford
$10 | $30 | $60
Credits
Written by
Suvendrini Lena
Director
Beatriz Pizano
Producer
Kristina McNamee
Scenographer
Trevor Schwellnus
Dramaturgy
Marjorie Chan
Costume Designer
Negar Nemati
Assistant Costume Designer
Goli Zareyi
Sound Designer
Thomas Ryder Payne
Assistant Sound Designer
Ahmed Hegazy
Associate Video Designer
Avideh Saadatpajouh
Props Contractor
David Hoekstra
Production Manager
Carlos Varela
Stage Manager
Flávia F. Martin
Apprentice Stage Manager
Reva Lokhande
Original Compositions
Roula Said
Captioner
Maher Sinno
Cast
Lara Arabian | Leila
Yousef Kadoura | Mo
Sam Khalilieh | Majid
Parya Heravi | Noora
Roula Said | The Poet
Aluna Team:
Outreach & Development Coordinator | Maria Paula Carreño-Martínez
Marketing Manager & Strategist | Renato Baldin
Consultation:
Script & Cultural Consulation | Lena Khalaf Tuffaha
TPM Community Consultant | Rahaf Fasheh
Cultural & Literary Consultant / Additional Dramaturgy | Rimah Jabr
Production Sponsors:
Additional Support:
Tickets & Showtimes
Rubble runs February 25 to March 18, 2023. Performance running time is 80 minutes. If you would like information on the topics or themes in our productions, or to determine the suggested age for attending a performance, please reach out to our Box Office staff at 416.504.7529 or by email at info@passemuraille.on.ca.
See showtime on the box office page
Running Time: 80 minutes
This production will have English captions for all performances.
Accessibility measures for this production include:
– Audience can exit and re-enter the theatre during the performance.
– There will be a relaxed space in the lobby should you need a break from the show.
– Sound reducing headphones are available from the box office.
– Visual Story accessible via the show program and on our website.
– Pre-show speech that will warn about content and environmental elements in the show.
Sensory-Sensitive Performance (Sunday, March 12 at 2pm)
For the Sensory-Sensitive Performance, there will be a more extensive pre-show speech with content and environmental warnings, including a sample of certain sound cues before the performance. The sound levels will be adjusted, the house lights will stay on dimly throughout the performance, and there will be a facilitator on-site. For more information about this performance, email: info@passemuraille.on.ca
If you would like information on the topics or themes in our productions, or to determine the suggested age for attending a performance, please reach out to our Box Office staff at 416.504.7529 or by email at info@passemuraille.on.ca.
The artistic mission of Aluna Theatre is to embrace the myriad of voices, cultures, and stories of our population, which are transforming the landscape of Canadian theatre. In our plays, works in translation, and international co-creations, people are complex individuals who exist beyond the restrictions of cultural labels. We encourage new hybrids of theatre evolved from a rich collaboration of experiences, performance traditions and media by engaging both emerging and established theatre professionals.
Our work reaches out to diverse audiences in Canada and abroad. We build liaisons that promote art as a way to empower, and a way to share with each other and the world the idea of living in harmony.
We welcome into our circle of support and celebration the TransAmerican artists living and working here, who represent the breadth of cultures and languages from across the Americas.
“This is what I know: Aluna Theatre has been built out of love. This is my life’s work. I do it because I want artists of the coming generations to have the freedom, space, and resources to create with the entirety of who they are as individuals. To those artists I say: Never hide, apologize, or justify your culture, the colour of your skin, or where you come from to a colonizing and patriarchal system that seeks to destroy the very essence of who you are.”
– Beatriz Pizano, Artistic Director
Suvendrini Lena is a playwright and neurologist. Her debut play, The Enchanted Loom was produced by Cahoots and Factory Theatre in 2016 and published by Playwrights’ Canada Press in English and Tamil (translated by Dushy Gnanapragasam). In 2019 she co-created the immersive theatrical installation Here are the Fragments, inspired by the work of the revolutionary psychiatrist, Frantz Fanon, in residency at the Theatre Centre. During the pandemic she worked as a Lead Medical Advisor to Pandemic Programs at Women’s College Hospital. She is an Assistant Professor of Neurology & Psychiatry, University of Toronto and is passionate about the importance of humanities in medical education. As a researcher she works on health equity in neurology and works with Asubpeeschoseewagong First Nation to document the impacts of environmental racism and mercury poisoning in their community.
To schedule an interview with the artist, or staff members at Theatre Passe Muraille regarding this production, please email Red Eye Media at Suzanne@redeyemedia.ca. We will try out best to accommodate your media requests, however they are not guaranteed.
Content warning: Occupation of Palestine, loss, grief, allusions to stillbirth, torture, abortion, sounds of explosions, depiction of suffocation. To inquire about the content warnings of the show please reach out to us at info@passemuraille.on.ca.
Environmental Warnings: Some loud explosion sounds and sudden lighting shifts.
The creators of Rubble would like to thank Pandemic Theatre for the support in the development of this play.
Rubble was supported by Theatre Cahoots (Hot House), Nightwood Theatre (Development Funds), and Gros Morne Playwrights Residency.
prelude:
Wednesday, March 1 at 6pm (click here for more information)
Post-Show Q & A:
Friday, March 10 & Thursday, March 16 (performance start time: 7:30pm)
Photo by Jeremy Mimnagh