They are mad as heck, and if you don’t mind, they would prefer not to take it any more!
A Canadian writer and producer living in Crown Heights has put together an evening of theater to challenge the perception that Canucks are sickeningly agreeable socialist draft-dodgers. “Canadians Are Mean” will run two nights at Park Slope’s Brooklyn Arts Exchange Oct. 31 and Nov. 1. The curator says Canadians care about more than just doughnuts, beer, and hockey, and her evening of dark theater will unleash some of their Great White-hot rage over being pigeon-holed as hosers.
“When you say you’re from Canada, Americans get this soft-eyed look like ‘aren’t you cute,’ which is infuriating,” said producer Melanie Jones, who moved to Brooklyn from Calgary, Alberta, in 2010. “It’s like feeling like you’re 4 years old at the grown-up party.”
The evening will feature three performances — a faux debate between a Canadian and a Welshman called “Angry Rants of the Disenchanted Foreigners,” a “creepily demoralizing motivational seminar” called “You Are Not Dead: A Guide To Modern Living,” and a “super dark and moody and rock and roll musical” called “Stray,” Jones said.
And the productions are 100 percent pure maple — the writers and cast hail from the provinces, and the production’s self-reflexive nature is itself a hallmark of Canadian art, according to Jones.
“I think America has a very clear idea of itself, a clear mythology, but part of Canada’s mythology is questioning — even the fact that I’m making this show is very Canadian,” Jones said.
The show runs at a tender time for our neighbors to the north — a shooter killed one and injured three in the country’s parliament building on Oct. 22. Jones said the tragedy solidified her Canadian identity.
“I don’t often have national pride — I have national defensiveness,” Jones said. “Right now, I’m very proud to be a Canadian.”
“Canadians Are Mean” at Brooklyn Arts Exchange [421 Fifth Ave. at Eighth Street in Park Slope, (718) 832–0018]. Oct. 31 and Nov. 1 at 8 pm. Tickets cost 16 loonies.