Bravo to our team, and thankyou to our patrons and sponsors.

We would like to extend a special thanks to our season sponsors: The Winnipeg Foundation, Assiniboine Credit Union, Taylor McCaffrey LLP, Peerless Garments, The Winnipeg Free Press, Relish Branding, Amphora Imports, New Bothwell Cheese, and Half Pints Brewing.

Bashir Lazhar: David Adams
Photo: Leif Norman

Wednesday, March 20, 2013 at 6:30 pm

Winnipeg Free Press News Café – 237 McDermot Avenue

Moderated by Sean Kavanagh, CBC Manitoba

Panelists:

Abdikheir Ahmed- Interim Executive Director at the Immigrant and Refugee Community Organization of Manitoba (IRCOM) Inc.

Damarys Ramirez- Manager of Inland Protection at Manitoba Interfaith Immigration Council

Bashir Khan, an Immigration and Refugee lawyer in Winnipeg and a member of the Human Rights Commission of Pakistan

 Admission is Free

Light Refreshments will be provided

Bashir Lazhar is an extraordinary play which gives us the story of a political refugee seeking asylum in Canada.  The subject matter is both topical and compelling. So we decided to take the pulse of this community – to hear about the concerns, triumphs and unique challenges that refugees face in Manitoba and Winnipeg.

Why?    Because good theatre builds strong communities – a play can provide a unique, humanistic perspective on a topic and a fantastic springboard for discussion.

Because in recent years, the federal government has made changes to immigration policies that are impacting many immigrants, refugees and their families. Currently, administration of settlement programming is shifting from provincial to federal responsibility, leaving many organizations who serve this community in a state of uncertainty.

The forum will be moderated by CBC’s Sean Kavanagh.  He will steer us through a discussion which will explore some of those policies with our distinguished panel.  But we’ll also aim to learn their effect – we want to hear the human side of a policy shift.

David Adams as Bashir Lazhar
Photo: Leif Norman

There’s something sadly, terrifyingly beautiful in the set the greets the audience entering Theatre Projects Manitoba’s production of Bashir Lazhar.

A twisted wreck of school desks, bright orange plastic chairs, and the remnants of window frames, it’s a scene that implies something unthinkable has happened – and yet also suggests the innocence and possibility of childhood.

And this is an apt metaphor for Quebecoise playwright Evelyne de la Chenelière’s one-man play (which inspired the Oscar-nominated film Monsieur Lazhar). It is full of sadness, humour, and hope, in a mixture that flows from horrifying to hopeful. And here, it makes for a rich, emotionally rewarding theatrical experience.

The play centres on the title character (a masterful solo performance by David Adams), an Algerian refugee who becomes the substitute teacher to a sixth-grade class shaken by a tragedy at the school.

From the start, though, we see that Bashir is well-intentioned, but ill-suited to the job. De la Chenelière introduces him to us as he rehearses his greeting to the class, unsure of who he should be – a friend? A disciplinarian? A dispassionate sage? Bashir seems certain only that he needs to teach – and as his own tragic backstory unfolds, we begin to understand why.

Click here to read the full review!

Four & a half stars! 

“Deceptively simple but deeply affecting”

“David Adam’s delivers an exceptional understated performance!”

At first glance at the spectacular set of the stage drama Bashir Lazhar, it looks like a bomb has gone off in the classroom of a French-langauge school in Montreal.

For its Grade 6 students, their safe haven of learning has been blown sky-high by the suicide of their beloved female teacher, found hanging in their classroom. The deceased is not the title character but it’s her substitute, a man who reads about the school tragedy and appears unannounced in the principal’s office offering to take over the traumatized class.

That sets the scene for Evelyne de la Chenelière’s deceptively simple but deeply affecting Bashir Lazhar…Read the whole review!

We will convene a panel discussion at the Free Press Café at 6:30 PM on Wednesday March 20^th.  The discussion will be moderated by CBC’s Sean Kavanagh and the panel will consist of Abdikheir Ahmed-  Interim Executive Director at the Immigrant and Refugee Community Organization of Manitoba (IRCOM) Inc.; Damarys Ramirez- Manager of Inland Protection at Manitoba Interfaith Immigration Council and Bashir Khan, an Immigration and Refugee lawyer in Winnipeg and a member of the Human Rights Commission of Pakistan. Bios soon to come.

TPM: What drew you to work on Bashir Lazhar?

DAVID: The play has many wonderful elements – its humanity, the themes of loss and rebirth, its inherent theatricality and its exploration of the wonderful relationship between teacher and student. Also, as an immigrant myself (from South Africa), I was fascinated by Bashir’s struggle to fit into his new surroundings and understand his new country. The transition was a fairly easy one for me, but the struggle to find one’s place in an adopted country has always interested me.

TPM: You act for film, television, theatre and as a voice over artist. What do you enjoy particularly about working in theatre?

DAVID: Film, TV and voice over work, while interesting, lucrative and sometimes exciting and seen and heard by sometimes millions of people, has its own reward. But the special relationship theatre actors have with their audience is a very profound one. Theatre doesn’t exist without an audience-they are a key component of the whole experience. The live reaction, the power to affect and move the audience is what makes a live performance so unique.

TPM: How will you prepare to work on this play?

DAVID: As a one-person show, there are a lot of words! So to make the whole process easier, I will try to be as familiar with all those words as I can before we start rehearsal. For me this usually means reading the play every day for weeks ahead, so that the ideas, the words, the flow of the piece, are firmly in my brain. I will also do a bit of research on Algeria, to find out as much as I can about the country that Bashir comes from. This is an important part of crawling into the skin of the character, so that by the time I hit the stage, I will know a lot about his background, his culture and I can portray him truthfully.

We huddle around the table with our coffees and notebooks and feel the crackle of excitement through introductions.   The design models and drawings are passed around the table so that we can all peer excitedly into the mini stage spaces.  When the first read finally begins, David’s resonant voice and physical bearing makes our hearts skip.  The conversation is focussed, and Ann speaks about the power of the poetic aspects in de la Chenaliere’s  beautiful play. We see that this crack team of artists will create stage magic!

We’ll bring you a few photos from the rehearsal hall in the coming days.  We also want to remind you that March 14th is coming very soon!  Do not delay purchasing your tickets – we want to accomodate your first  choice of dates.  Besides, it’s easy – you can purchase right here on the website, or by calling us:  204-989-2400.  Talk soon!  Love, TPM

We will be presenting staged readings of scenes from Greg’s Isadora Fabulist at our February Salon on Monday, February 4 at 7pm at the Folk Exchange.

As always, admission is free for Season Passholders, $5 for the general public. Doors will open at 7pm with our two-act program beginning at 7:30pm. Cash bar. See you there!