PERFORMING ARTS AGENCY
Verbatim Documentary Play Series
by Alex Ivanovici, Brett Watson
and Annabel Soutar
The Assembly started in 2017 as a long-term documentary project. In each touring city, the play’s creative team sets up and records encounters in which four strangers of wildly different ideological leanings face off and candidly confront the issues that most divide them. A play script is created from the verbatim content of these recorded encounters and, on stage, actors play the four real-life characters in unique debate-like plays, specific to each city.
The Assembly - Energy in Canada
This new iteration, about the energy transition in Canada, features the following 4 participants:
KAELLA-MARIE: late 20s-early 30s Indigenous chemical engineer who works for a gas pipeline company in Ontario. She used to be an anti-pipeline protester, but recently decided that she would have more impact in the fight to reduce greenhouse gas emissions if she worked for a pipeline company repairing methane leaks. Nevertheless, Kaella-Marie is still conflicted about working for ‘the enemy’.
ADAM: 40s Toronto-based NGO founder who works to lobby big Canadian pension funds to divest from fossil fuel investments. He is a life-long environmental activist who believes that finance is the key lever that will shift the Canadian economy away from oil and gas production.
MEREDITH: 40s rural BC-based environmental activist who recently left her work in Ottawa as a lobbyist to found a community NGO based on the practice of ‘deep canvassing’. Meredith builds dialogue with communities in rural areas that addresses peoples’ emotional resistance to taking action on climate change.
MICHAEL: early 60s from Calgary. Conversative. The CEO of a small oil and gas company, Michael is a serial entrepreneur who has founded and sold many companies in different industries over the years. He recently discovered a massive shale gas deposit in Quebec which he proposed to develop ‘sustainably’ by running its operations on hydro-electricity and recycling its carbon emissions. His license to drill was revoked by François Legault for political reasons, drawing him into a protracted legal battle with the Quebec government.
The play also features the appearance of David Suzuki as ‘the polarising figure’.
Script available on demand
Text: Alex Ivanovici, Annabel Soutar & Brett Watson
Director : Chris Abraham
MORE ABOUT "THE ASSEMBLY" SERIES
Do you consider yourself right wing or left wing? Where do you stand on topics like immigration, the Islamic veil, QAnon? Do you sometimes find yourself politically misunderstood?
Political polarization has reached a boiling point and is putting increasing pressure on the practice of democracy. Annabel Soutar teams up with Alex Ivanovici and Brett Watson to create a thrilling theatrical response to the rise of extremism and tribalism in political discourse today.
The Assembly is not a battle of abstract ideologies, it’s a very human encounter between unique people. And although their dialogue is not always rational, the four Assembly characters express emotions and personal experiences that we can relate to, even if we don’t always agree with them.
EACH EPISODE IS DIFFERENT
The Assembly started in 2017 as a long-term documentary project. In each touring city, the play’s creative team sets up and records encounters in which four strangers of wildly different ideological leanings face off and candidly confront the issues that most divide them. A play script is created from the verbatim content of these recorded encounters and, on stage, actors play the four real-life characters in unique debate-like plays, specific to each city.
One city at a time, one episode at a time, The Assembly weaves together the different threads of our social fabric. The series thus creates a safe but challenging space for open democratic discussion, where everyone who is ready to engage in a real dialogue can speak freely.
More information about this project:
https://porteparole.org/en/series/the-assembly/