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May 31, 2004 Play “Cries from the Land” gets rave reviews from Ottawa audiences - and snubs from the CBC By Linda Belanger, Canpalnet-Ottawa 
The play "Cries from the Land" sponsored by Canpalnet-Ottawa and
Canadian Friends of Sabeel was a tremendous success. Over 500 people
attended during the four day run of the play and the final night was
completely sold out. Those attending included heads of
churches, NDP candidate Monia Mazigh, diplomats from the Department of
Foreign Affairs and International Trade, several ambassadors and members of both the Palestinian and Jewish communities who stood
together and applauded every show. Although a press release was issued a week prior to the opening night of May 18th and again just before the event, organizers were surprised when no response was received from the CBC. In spite of its timely subject matter our national broadcaster, charged with promoting Canada’s diversity, chose to ignore the play, a Made in Canada production, the setting of which is Gaza where the Israeli Defence Forces were demolishing hundreds of homes and attacking unarmed peaceful demonstrators at the very time the play was being performed in Ottawa. Artscape apparently included Cries in its daily list of announcements during the week the play ran, but although a number of other CBC programs were contacted by telephone with a request for actual coverage of this pertinent event, only Canada Now's story assignment desk came back with an answer - a chilling and definite "No". The excuse: no cameras would be available after 7.00 p.m. It was explained that the show would be videotaped, so there would be no need for cameras, just an interest in doing a story or conducting an interview. The response was, "I don’t think so." Finally, free tickets were offered to anyone at the CBC who would come out and enjoy the show. Response: "Sorry, too busy." "Cries from the Land" was co-written by Ottawa writer/activist Samah Sabawi and her father, Palestinian-Australian writer Abdel-Karim Sabawi, Gaza's most popular author and winner of the Gibran award. It depicts a day in the life of a young Palestinian boy who has been arrested for stone throwing.  Granted, Cries is an amateur production, but in the past year CBC Radio One has interviewed a man who collects lost cat posters, a woman who recounted a French Canadian legend about a flying canoe, and just last week a man in New York about underwear returned to department stores. Given the above context, one has to wonder why a play co-written by a winner of the Gibran award and put together by a group of 32 Ottawa residents from diverse backgrounds does not qualify for a few minutes of dedicated air time. Your Comments |
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