Where’s the Value in Freedom of Expression?
It’s tough to be dependent on something we don’t fully understand. When we’re young, we depend on parents; a little later, on hormones; and a lot later, on computers. All have our best interests in mind; if only we could appreciate it at the time.
All artistic endeavours in Canada depend heavily on laws protecting free expression. Without them, creative acts would be various interpretations of Anne of Green Gables, and you can be sure we’d never get to see the curve of an unclothed shoulder.
Free speech is a tricky subject. Its legal definition is a snore, so full of fuzziness that we’re left only with a perception of its meaning, and are never sure where the lines of acceptability are drawn.
Elie Wiesel. Courtesy of Wikipedia.
We do, however, know exactly when our own right is being assaulted. This is how Elie Wiesel felt when playwright Deb Margolin used him as a real-life character in her fictionalized play Imagining Madoff, about swindler Bernie Madoff.
Wiesel, a respected human-rights activist, thought the play defamed him and threatened to sue, forcing its cancellation. I haven’t seen the script, but the play’s Wiesel character isn’t supposed to be anything but a victim (which actually happened). As the Wall Street Journal’s drama critic Terry Teachout wrote about the incident: “nobody likes to be publicly embarrassed—but it’s not illegal.”
Cody Campanale. Photo by Mike Levin.
in Canada. There’s no clear right or wrong position about Wiesel’s depiction, but it reminded me of something playwright/film director Cody Campanale told me about the creative desire – his desire – to probe the darkness of human nature because it disrupts our cultural comfort and helps us to better understand ourselves.
Photo courtesy of Kris Joseph.
Joseph was tickled that theatre can still get issues flowing: “I care very deeply that so many people have been caught up in forming an opinion — any opinion — about a piece of art.” I’d add that the I care very deeply about the ability to express opinions because it means feeling alive. Outside of art, not much of this goes on these days.
Which is what Brigitte Haentjens meant by this comment from her 2007 Siminovitch Prize acceptance speech:
“Theatre has the effect on me of a cut, of a burn, of a punch, of a lash. Theatre stimulates me, upsets me, and can even enrage me. Theatre has always given me the desire to live, to create, to stand up and fight. In short, theatre inspires every feeling in me except that of comfort.”
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