Tom McCamus (11/92 Taking Liberties)
Excerpt from Dave Carley 11/92: Tom McCamus
Taking Liberties
Taking Liberties examines five critical moments in the life of a city, when ordinary citizens are forced to make extraordinary choices. The play moves back through five decades, showing how the moral dilemmas of one era can impact on the events of another. The play consists of five monologues: a professor under attack for her stand on affirmative action; a young Jewish lawyer who is shunned by his family for defending a holocaust denier; a high school student who demands that a controversial novel remain on her school's curriculum; and a newspaper editor who must decide how much free speech his paper will allow. Finally there is the story of the man who ties their lives together - a homosexual accountant who sets out on an agonized stroll through the city all five love. Intellectual sustenance for Taking Liberties was derived from the writings of Dr. A. Alan Borovoy, general counsel of the Canadian Civil Liberties Association, and in particular from his excellent text When Freedoms Collide.
Production History
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Taking Liberties had its Toronto premiere at the Factory Theatre Studio in November, 1992. The cast was as follows:
Anne Harvie - Dixie Seatle
Ron Bloom - Michael Caruana
Sara Munro - Stephanie Morgenstern
Heck Munro - Gary Reineke
Gerald Harvie - Tom McCamus
Directed by Stephen Ouimette
Lighting Design by Peter Cochran
Sound Design by Lesley Barber
Stage Managed by Janet Gregor
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