Diversity at the Toronto Fringe: Gender! Sexuality! Race! (Just not Languages of Eradicated Cultures

The Toronto Fringe Festival is one of the largest theatre festivals in Ontario while

keeping tickets at $12, which speaks to their efforts in trying to make theatre available to a wider

range of audiences. Given Canada’s intricate history with the eradication of Indigenous culture,

one would hope the plays available at such a popular and accessible festival would showcase a

few stories that call for the continuation and rise of an important defining feature of Indigenous

society: language.

While Algonquin Highway (Algonquin Highway 2017) fails on many thematic levels, the most obvious dramaturgical element that they chose to incorporated into the performance text is the speaking of an Indigenous language. I don’t mean a few words or phrases; I mean characters having conversation and interacting long enough for the audience to be immersed into the world of the play and connect to the language it promotes. In respect to preserving endangered languages, Moradewun Adejunmobi believes that “performance remains the predominant means by which a public is constituted and public discourse is generated” while “the written text will still not generate as significant a consciousness of belonging to a collective audience as the performed text” (Adejunmobi 24).

I rarely see Indigenous characters represented in mainstream television, music, and

movies, let alone programs where Indigenous characters speak their own language for more than a few seconds. If the ‘silver screen’ and songs don’t represent these languages that play an important part in forming Canada’s diversity, we must turn to the stage. Unfortunately, we fall short here as well. How can there be a discourse when there is no representation on any medium? How can Indigenous populations feel part of a collective when their most basic means of communication is disregarded on every major public platform? We must keep this in mind when we take into consideration that in a 2011 census “only 17.2 per cent of the total Indigenous population reported being able to carry a conversation in an Indigenous language” (Rice 2008).

We also must take into account the Toronto Fringe and what it represents; Temple

Hauptfleisch argues that we should view festivals as “performances in their own...some festivals

may be seen as celebrating particular events or particular ideologies and ideas” (Hauptfleisch

40-41). If Toronto Fringe wants to be a performance that represents diversity and inclusion of

minority groups, it must include shows that contain linguistic diversity. It must give respect to

everything that comes with diversity and in a meaningful way, starting with showcasing stories

that aim to preserve languages of endangered communities in constant battle to be recognized.

Works Cited

Adejunmobi, Moradewun. "Performance and Language Diversity in a Globalizing World." Ed. Peter Licthenfels and John Rouse. Performance, politics and activism. Houndmills, Basingstoke, Hampshire; New York: Palgrave Macmillan, 2013. 17-31. Web. 12 July 2017.

Algonquin Highway. By Wyatt Lamoureux. Dir. Wyatt Lamoureux. Perf. Smith Purdy, Haley Vincent. Al Green Theatre, Toronto. Performance. 4 July 2017.

Hauptfleisch, Temple. "Festivals as Eventifying Systems." Festivalising! : theatrical events, politics and culture. Amsterdam; New York: Rodopi, 2007. 39-45. Web. 12 July 2017.

Rice, Keren. "Indigenous Languages in Canada." The Canadian Encyclopedia. 13 Aug. 2008. Web. 12 July 2017.