Small world

>>Annabel Soutar and Porte Parole cross
borders and cultures with Import/Export

INSIDE THE FACTORY: Import/Export

by NEIL BOYCE

In her early days studying playwriting at Princeton University, Porte Parole theatre founder Annabel Soutar had an experience that set her off on a particular style of storytelling.

Now in its 10th year producing “documentary theatre,” Porte Parole creates texts composed entirely from the words of people interviewed as the play is researched. They might speak to scientists, cabbies, new immigrants, business and industry types, people on the streets and in shops—assembling it all into a story around a main theme.

Their new work, Import/Export, premiering at Festival TransAmériques, involves China, and a Quebec clothing manufacturer shutting down and moving operations over there. It’s a look at growing globalization and the changing market on our doorstep, and how it all affects us and interconnects.

Soutar cites American playwright and performer Anna Deavere Smith—with her critically acclaimed one-woman, multi-character political works—as the galvanizing element in her ongoing project.

“What was most bewitching,” Soutar says, “was that she managed to get you to listen to people who would be your ideological opponents, that she rendered them in such a human way, and with such respect. She promotes a civilized dialogue about things that can become very polemical.”

Having one actor portray many characters is not just a practical decision, Soutar emphasizes, but an artistic one. “It shows the common human root of these diverse people. It’s also very theatrical to see an actor transform from one character to the next. This is something we’re playing with a lot in Import/Export, where we have four different languages happening on stage—English, French, Cantonese and Mandarin.”

Soutar traces the genesis of the work: “It seemed that every day when I opened my newspaper, there was news of more people being laid off in Quebec and simultaneously, a greater interest in China and how its rise represented either an opportunity or a threat to the Western world. The Olympics were coming up and I knew there was going to be more and more coverage of that, and potentially some conflicts.

Soutar travelled to China, actually getting into a clothing factory, interviewing workers and trading company managers, and hearing their side of the story.

“My plays seek to find human details, human anecdotes about issues that have become abstract,” she says. “When you think of globalization—what does that mean exactly? Are we really under threat here in the West? What does Quebec have to do, in particular, to deal with that? Because this is happening everywhere, and we have been known to be a bit insular in this province.

“Right now, there’s a lot of dislocation. It’s very hard on the human spirit. If you talk to people these days, how many hold on to the same job for more than two years? How many people are able to stay in the community where they grew up? How many people have a job where they don’t have to travel three days a week?

“At its core, that’s what the play is looking at—the impact of that type of environment on the human being.”

Import/Export, part of Festival
TransAmériques, runs June 2–4 at
Espace Go (4890 St-Laurent).
Tickets: Centre Pierre-Péladeau
(300 de Maisonneuve E.)
(514) 844-3822, or www.fta.qc.ca