Fig Trees
FIG TREES is a documentary opera about AIDS activists Tim McCaskell of Toronto and Zackie Achmat of Capetown as they fight for access to treatment drugs. Documentary interviews, speeches, press conferences and demonstrations are sampled, taken apart, and set to music, replayed this time as operatic scenes. A surreal fictional narrative is intercut with the stories of their struggles against government and the pharmaceutical industry. In this fictional world, Gertrude Stein decides to write a tragic opera about Tim and Zackie and their saint-like heroism. She kidnaps them, transports them to Niagara Falls, and forces them to sing a series of complicated avant-garde vocal compositions. However, when Zackie ends his treatment strike and starts taking his pills, Gertrude realizes that there will be no more tragedy, and thus, no more opera.
Cast
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Van Abrahams
Played Christopher Moraka
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Zackie Achmat
Played Christopher Moraka
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Stephen Chen
Played Saint Caesura
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Ezra Perlman
Played St. Martin
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Ashton Williams
Played Nkosi Johnson
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Denise Williams
Played St. Teresa of Avila
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David Wall
Played Tim McCaskell
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Deborah Overes
Played Gertrude Stein
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Mark Hartmeier
Played St. Peregrine
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Justin Bacchus
Played Christopher Moraka
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Stephen McClare
Played Translator
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Jennifer Moore
Played Thabo/Manto/Rat
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