The Play Must Go On(line) at Luminato

May 27, 2020

The Play Must Go On(line) at Luminato

Across the country, theatre productions such as Prof. Christine Brubaker’s Henry G20 are being transformed to bring onstage action to your small screen

Khadijah Roberts-Abdullah Tanja Tiziana

Pretend — just for a minute. It’s 2010 and you’re in Toronto on Queen Street West, one week before the G20 summit is about to begin. Tensions between activists and the police have been flaring for a week. But then, over a weekend, they turn nasty. Fast.

Afterward, police say protestors — most of whom are chanting for free tuition and reduced greenhouse gas emissions, but mainly for the G20 leaders to go home — are using so-called “black bloc” tactics. That is why the police begin penning or “kettling” protestors in the pouring rain, for hours. During the final weekend of the summit, two police cruisers are torched, storefronts are smashed by dozens of black masked anarchists, who, after their carnage, dissolve among 10,000 peaceful protestors. A 20,000 strong militarized police force take to the streets and the result? More than 1,000 arrests, making it the largest mass arrest in Canadian history, followed by a class-action lawsuit that remains tied up in court a decade later.

Such is the premise of Christine Brubaker’s play, Henry G20, in which the U91��ɫ drama professor reimagines Shakespeare’s Henry V, setting the story in Toronto during the G20 protests. In effect, the play deftly flips the bygone French-English battles with those that raged between civilian protesters and a militarized police force in 2010. Brubaker began the piece back in 2014 when she was assistant director of the Stratford Festival, but sharpened the script after coming to teach at U91��ɫ in 2017. It all came together in 2018 after a series of graduate research assistants (including MFA student Constantine Anastaskis, who became co-writer and asst. director) further honed the script, followed by a one-week workshop that involved a public reading. It was at this juncture that Toronto’s Luminato Festival and the Bentway Strachan Gate Amphitheatre came on aboard as partners.

Photo above: Khadijah Roberts-Abdullah plays the lead in Henry G20. Photo credit: Tanja Tiziana

If COVID-19 hadn’t turned Luminato, Toronto’s three-week multi-arts festival, into a three-day digital experience this year, Henry G20 would be in rehearsals right now, readying the actors for the play’s opening in the last week of June

Most of Luminato's productions are outdoor, large-scale immersive events

Instead, the play will go on — but not until next June, “fingers crossed,” says Brubaker. But there will still be a sneak peek this year, set for June 13 (7:20 p.m. EST), that will feature Henry G20 as “a short teaser video, followed by a panel conversation with former Toronto City Councillor Olivia Chow, York University artist/scholar Lesley Wood, and artist/activist Syrus Marcus Ware,” says Brubaker, who will moderate the discussion around “activism and community organizing in a socially distanced world. Each of these individuals were key figures during the protests.”

This year’s audience won’t be gathering at the Bentway, a large outdoor park underneath Toronto’s Gardiner Highway, “or [physically] following the performers,” as Brubaker imagines will happen in her highly immersive play, “or finding yourself in the middle of a large demonstration . . . but maybe in 2021?”

Jeremy Mimnagh

However, “one of the advantages of a virtual festival is the ability to share the artists’ works with a larger audience that is not separated by borders or distance,” points out Alex Rand, Luminato’s programming associate and producer. “Anyone who has an Internet connection can log on and watch,” he adds, inviting U91��ɫ alumni, staff, students, "anyone, really," to do just that.

“A small disadvantage is that we can't all be in the same room together, which is hard to grapple with when someone like Christine has devoted her life to creating spaces for community and sharing art together.”

A recent Zoom rehearsal of Henry G20, that included artists from Toronto, Ottawa, Vancouver and 91��ɫ.

Not wanting to be the spoiler, Rand explains that the June 11-13 digital version of Luminato will showcase online performances, conversations, a few late-night parties, “some little surprises from our favourite artists, a couple of hints at projects that are to come, and some ‘greatest hits’ footage from events we've done in the past.”

Traditionally, Luminato spans numerous venues — from streets to stages — across Toronto. Theatre, dance, contemporary music, large visual art exhibits and some high-powered talks with celebrities are what fans would typically find at this edgy international festival that began in 2007 as a way to spark tourism — ironically — after Toronto had been clobbered by the SARS epidemic.

Although nothing about this year’s festival can be viewed as “normal,” Brubaker maintains that her play’s critical conversation about leadership and accountability persists and should be kept alive. “The confusion and chaos that took over the city in that short week in June 2010, and how we responded as a community, is something that deserves our continued attention,” she says.

Discover more by tuning into Henry G20 on June 13 (7:20 p.m. EST)

U91��ɫ resources on COVID-19

For the most up-to-date information about the 91��ɫ's response to the spread of COVID-19, visit the