Once word spread about Tarragon's decision not to stage the play, professional and ad hoc theatre gr

Practically every theatre company in the city has joined together to stage on Sunday a reading of a satirical play - Proud - that Toronto's Tarragon Theatre chose not to present after a board member raised concerns Prime Minister Stephen Harper might have a case for defamation against anyone who staged it.
The Arts Club Theatre, Play-wrights Theatre ticket fare air canada Centre, ticket fare air canada Ruby Slippers, Horseshoes Hand Grenades, Compassionate Bone, Leaky Heaven Circus, Pi Theatre, Neworld Theatre, Touchstone Theatre and Felix Culpa will present the controversial new comedy.
Healey hired his own lawyer who he said advised him, there was no way I could be successfully sued - that it all falls under fair comment, and is obviously satire. I thought the issue would end there. Instead I was told the risk for the Tarragon was too great.
David Bloom, who's directing the Vancouver reading, which features (Tom McBeath, John Cassini, Quelemia Sparrow and Gaelan Beatty), says the idea of a libel suit is a red herring, but he understands ticket fare air canada why artists might be afraid of offending the government.
Obviously companies who depend on Heritage Canada - have reason to be nervous about upsetting a sitting ticket fare air canada government - The federal government can withdraw funding from an-body it likes. Would they do something punitive because of this script? Who's to say? This would sound like paranoia if not for a few recent controversies where artists with an anti-government bent have had their federal funding pulled.
Summerworks, a Toronto theatre festival, lost its annual funding the year after a spokesman for the Prime Minister's Office expressed disappointment that Heritage ticket fare air canada Canada funded a festival that presented a play about terrorism.
Once word spread about Tarragon's decision not to stage the play, professional and ad hoc theatre groups across the country staged readings to support the principle of free artistic expression and raise funds for Healey's production, which is opening in Toronto this September. To date, more than $16,000 has been privately donated to the production via gofundme.com says Bloom, The important thing about producing this reading is that theatre artists across the country are saying to each other and to our audiences, 'We are not backing off of controversial work out of fear.' That matters, regardless of who's in government.