Movies of War

1 of 1 2 of 1 Vancouver-based director Omari Newton doesn’t wait for the obvious question about Franklinland, which casts one of America’s most mythical legends as something less than a stellar human being.Instead, the theatre and film veteran brings it up unprompted near the end of a conversation that covers topics such topics as race relations in the U.S., ICE raids, a certain orange-hued Cheeto in Chief, and Canada’s current status as a proudly sovereign nation. The elephant in the room, as Franklinland heads to the Arts Club Granville Island Stage in the era of elbows up? “The question that I imagine is on a lot of minds of audiences is, ‘Why this American play about a founding father right now?’ ” Newton asks, on a call from Montreal, where he was raised. “The idea of examining this—I don’t want to say ‘failed’—but this struggling American experiment that has never lived up to its ideals is quite timely right now, given the slide back into tyranny that we’re seeing in America. Anyone who comes to see the show should not be anticipating us looking at Benjamin Franklin, or America, through a lens of reverence or idolatry.”Instead, U.S. playwright Lloyd Suh, who wrote Franklinland, paints one of American history’s most revered figures as a frequently cruel buffoon. The inventor and politician is cast as weirdly self-absorbed, verbally abusive, and less than father-of-the-year to his dimwitted son, who serves as his main target of abuse. Benjamin Franklin might have invented lightning rods and bifocals, and helped draft the Declaration of Independence, but Suh’s play suggests he was also prone to calling the absentee mother of his child a “random prostitute”, and doling out such fatherly advice as “There’s no such thing as too much masturbation.”Reviews of past American productions of the play have suggested that some get the joke, and some don’t, something that Newton is perfectly okay with.“I think any good work of art will be polarizing,” Newton offers. “If you write something that’s just catering to the majority, then you’re pandering. Personally, I’m a fan of Curb Your Enthusiasm, National Lampoon, and The Onion, so I like my comedy with a dark, biting edge. I think that comedy is an effective weapon against things like hypocrisy and fascism.”Unless you’re a devoted historian, it can be hard to tell what’s real and what’s not in Franklinland, starting with the jacking the beanpole obsession. On a serious note, that confusion kind of sounds like America right now, where we’re told by the White House to believe one thing when we’ve clearly seen something else, the ICE killings in Minnesota being a 1984-like example.Yes, Franklin did give America the gift of the catheter, as mined for laughs in Franklinland, but Suh also isn’t afraid to take liberties with his script.“I love that there’s a certain irreverence that the playwright here takes with the history of Benjamin Franklin,” Newton says. “Even the language vacillates between the contemporary and language that would be appropriate for the time period.”Franklinland also argues that one of the American icon’s lifetime dreams was to establish his own U.S. outpost in Nova Scotia, where he owned land. There, the United States’ brightest and most creative talents could live in a nurturing (and independent-of-Canada) utopia known as—you guessed it—Franklinland.If that’s again not 100-percent true, it totally sounds like it could be, especially at this particular point in history. Down south we have America’s current president constantly rambling on about making Canada part of the U.S. as a 51st state. Added bonus for those looking for parallels between Trump and Franklinland’s version of Franklin? How about that, from all available evidence, Donald Trump Jr. is every bit of a disappointment to his father as William Franklin is to Suh’s Benjamin Franklin.It all adds up to a show that might make you feel better about a country that’s making the entire world feel worse about humankind on a daily basis.“I have been and continue to be critical of America as a country,” Newton says. “It’s a country that I feel was founded on these great principles in theory, right? But it’s never really lived up to them, and hasn’t really done the greatest job of reconciling with its history of slavery and colonization.“Lloyd Suh is a person of colour,” he continues. “And I was fascinated, before I even read the play, with the question, ‘What does a person of colour have to say about America and Benjamin Franklin?’ So there was intrigue from the beginning.”What we end up with, he suggests, is a takedown of an icon who—like the American president in more normal times—is normally revered. The shitshow taking place south of the border makes Franklinland perfect for this moment in history. So, again, why a Canadian play about an American founding father right now? Newton is glad you asked.“There’s lots to admire about America,” he opines. “But from its foundation to what’s currently happening down there, it sadly seems like they’ve gone back a few hundred years in terms of their attitudes about race and immigration. So it’s the right time for critiquing and mocking America and its hypocritical nature.”Franklinland is at the Arts Club Theatre’s Granville Island Stage from March 12 to April 5. Join the discussion Facebook comments not loading? Please check your browser settings to ensure that it is not blocking Facebook from running on straight.com