In pursuit of Facts

Ottawa playwright Arthur Milner’s new political thriller touches on murder, mystery and the Middle East

When you summarize the action of the new work by Ottawa playwright Arthur Milner, Facts, it sounds dreary and heavy: two policemen, one Israeli and one Palestinian, are partnered together to solve the murder of an archaeologist in the West Bank. Violence, clashing ideas of justice and cultural divide all revolve around the murder of someone who literally and symbolically digs up a sacred past. You’d probably be forgiven for initially thinking that Facts is a politically motivated play, a didactic comment being made on the reality of the West Bank. I certainly did.

But for Milner – even with his interest in Middle Eastern affairs, biblical history and archaeology – creating this play was about something else. Something critical. Something that I love hearing people say: “I think it’s just a question of good writing.”

Milner tells me that the structure of the mystery story helps keep the play light, helps keep elements that might otherwise overwhelm the story in focus and at a distance. “You have to respect the mystery story. When cops are trying to solve a mystery, they’re generally not throwing political speeches at each other.”

If you have to resort to speeches, to lectures on moral topics, your writing halts, becomes stagnant, and then “everyone will suddenly feel the energy just drop out of the play.” And more than that, the play becomes mechanical in a way that Milner seems to find deeply unpleasant. “There has to be something in the play that you as a writer are trying to figure out. A human question.” In pursuing this question, the politics should come out of the art naturally.

The really curious thing is to find such light-hearted devotion to craft and entertainment in someone who believes in political theatre as much as Milner does.

“In our theatre in this country we are in a very commercial state. I think this has something to do with cutbacks in funding, but not only that.” He explains that when grant money in Canadian theatre decreases, the usual response is to become smaller and more conservative with what you stage, to shore up the business end by becoming less political. And he’s certainly in a position to understand the business of theatre. Milner was artistic director of the GCTC from 1992-95, and resident playwright there for the few years previous to that.

“I think the problem is not audiences, it’s the artistic directors and choices. I think the audiences are there for good, serious – which doesn’t mean boring – and smart political theatre.

“That’s the kind of theatre I’m interested in.”

Facts
At the Great Canadian Theatre Company (1233 Wellington Ave.), April 13 to May 2
Info: (613) 236-5196

As appeared in Ottawa XPress – April 08, 2010
http://www.ottawaxpress.ca/stage/stage.aspx?iIDArticle=19615