About the Book:

Performing Back: Post-Colonial Canadian Plays is a collection of plays that examines topics including race, imperialism, and notions of otherness insofar as they intersect with post-colonial theatre. It aims to generate discussion about the different kinds of theatrical and political output this country is generating, and fills a glaring void in current theatre scholarship in Canada.

This first volume of the Contextualizing Canadian Theatre series includes:

The Birds by Yvette Nolan is a modern adaptation of the Aristophanes classic comic fantasy. Two men, frustrated by the modern world, arrive in the fabled land of the birds seeking freedom and a better way of life. But the men are unable to resist remaking this utopian paradise in their own image, without regard for the inhabitants who already occupy the land. In her playful modern retelling of this story, Yvette Nolan has transformed The Birds to reflect pressing contemporary Indigenous questions about truth and reconciliation. (Premiered in 2013 at the University of Regina; Cast: 10 female, 2 male, with doubling)

The Adventures of Ali & Ali and aXes of Evil by Camyar Chai, Guillermo Verdecchia, Marcus Youssef is a satire of Western neo-colonial forays into Iraq. The internal contradictions and duplicitous double-speak of the "war on terror" are exposed as the propaganda vehicles for the neo-colonialism of the West that they are. (Premiered in 2004 at the Vancouver East Cultural Centre, known as "The Cultch"; Cast: 4 male)

Salome's Clothes by Donna-Michelle St. Bernard: Inspired by events unfolding in Cote d'Ivoire, the play is a domestic tragedy about a too-proud mother and the young daughters she sacrifices and and a subtle political allegory about the potential cost of our globalized demand for short-term material comfort. Are we selling our future for worthless trinkets? (Premiered in 2013 at the SummerWorks Theatre Festival in Toronto; Cast: 3 female)

About the Editor:

Dalbir Singh is a Canadian editor, educator, playwright, and academic. His publications have been included in such journals and anthologies as Canadian Theatre Review, Critical Perspectives on Canadian Theatre, Red Light, and She Speaks. His plays have been performed at the Harbourfront Centre, Factory Theatre, Buddies in Bad Times Theatre, and on CBC Radio. He headed theatre festivals whilst attaining a PhD in Theatre and South Asian Studies at the University of Toronto, and has taught courses at the University of Toronto, University of Guelph, and University of Waterloo.