Canadian Theatre and the Tragic Experience of Evil

Abstract

This essay examines the relevance of the tragic account of evil for Canadian theatre in the shadow of the contemporary "war on terror." It concentrates on two important aspects of the ancient Greek depiction of evil in tragedy: (1) that no agent, human or divine, is either absolutely good or absolutely evil; and (2) that evil, understood as the experience of dread, cannot be exterminated but can, at best, be kept within limits. In other words, the tragic account of evil is neither"melodramatic" nor"eschatological." The essay then discusses three recent Canadian plays that address current moral and geo-political issues: The Adventures of Ali & Ali and the aXes of Evil by Marcus Youssef, Guillermo Verdecchia, and Camyar Chai; Capture Me by Judith Thompson; and Insomnia by Daniel Brooks with Guillermo Verdecchia. Through these works, this essay explores how the experience of evil is currently being depicted and considers the possibilities for a new type of tragic theatre in Canada.