A young Canadian man travels to Ukraine to observe the elections following the Orange Revolution, only to become an unexpected player in its fractured politics, its tumultuous history and the fate of a beautiful woman. As he falls deeper in love with the mysterious young woman, the more tenuous his grasp of her country and its complicated past becomes.
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2015, Tarragon Theatre, Toronto
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Realistic
Weaving poetic drama with myriad documentary sources, A Line in the Sand rips the benevolent mask off recent western peacekeeping operations and challenges Canada’s long treasured national mythology that it is a nation of quiet diplomats. It asks us to imagine how horrors like these could be perpetrated with our money, in our name and by people much like us.
Realistic
It is 2007, and Iraq is roiling under the American occupation. Fractured by warring political factions, threatened by Islamic fundamentalism, preyed on by American industrialists, it is a place where the cry of a dying child often goes unheard. Against this backdrop, the Americans prepare to host the Conference for Democracy and the Salvation of Iraq, a glittering assembly of powerful Iraqis and Americans. One day, at the checkpoint in front of the conference, a little girl called Ghazal Ahad in search of her father is shot by an unidentified American soldier. As the conference unfolds, American commanders struggle to contain the fallout from the “incident.” Nonetheless, a Sheikh declares a fatwa, the Iraqi prime minister finds his government threatened, and the commander in charge, Hektor, who harbors a secret past, is forced to protect both the army and himself. At the centre of this chaos unfolds an intensely private drama of grief, revenge and forgiveness. As the turmoil tightens around them, we are led to question not only what comprises “war” and “terror,” but how, where and by whom the real “war on terror” is fought…
