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

Van Abrahams Christopher Moraka

Zackie Achmat Christopher Moraka

Stephen Chen Saint Caesura

Ezra Perlman St. Martin

Ashton Williams Nkosi Johnson

Denise Williams St. Teresa of Avila

David Wall Tim McCaskell

Deborah Overes Gertrude Stein

Mark Hartmeier St. Peregrine

Justin Bacchus Christopher Moraka

Stephen McClare Translator

Jennifer Moore Thabo/Manto/Rat

Metadata from the source database.