That Wicked Laughter

Toronto theatrical trio satirizes George W. Bush politics in Ali

If you're under the impression that the upcoming play titled The Adventures of Ali and Ali and the Axes of Evil is about Mr. Bush's most-wanted list of evildoers in Korea and the Middle East, think again. "It's actually 'axes' as in the woodcutting variety - or head-chopping variety, actually, " says one of the show's creators, Camyar Chai.
Along with Guillermo Verdecchia and Marcus Youssef, Chai has been working on this tongue-in-cheek political commentary for about two years. "The process kind of kicked into action in 2001," he says. Chai and Youssef, who are based in Vancouver, had developed a pair of satirical characters (Ali and Ali) for a series of appearances on CBC Radio. When the events of September 11 happened, their parodies were suddenly infused with a more urgent energy.
"We ended up doing about five sketches and we sent a tape of it to Guillermo," says Chai, who had worked with Verdecchia before. "He said 'Do you guys want to see if we can turn that into a play?'"
At heart, says Chai, "It's a satire based on the so-called war on terror, that examines the official seriousness that exists, that is portrayed by our leaders, and tries to expose it for the actual vulgarity and ruthlessness that lies at the heart of it."
If this sounds a little heavy, then you're not familiar with the highly theatrical sensibility of these three collaborators. "Somebody described it as Michael Moore meets The Party," Chai says, referring to the hilarious Peter Sellers film. "It's simply a discussion from the point of view of two characters who are essentially clowns. We're just watching two guys trying to make sense of the world around them."
In one section of the show, "We have the classical Puppet Theatre of Agraba, which actually depicts a scene right out of the Oval Office," Chai elaborates. And since the two imaginary Alis are supposed to be performers, "There's our so-called hit song 'World Dreaming Together', which, before performing in Canada, we performed in Somalia and Kosovo and all kinds of third-world places. We were kind of the Bob Hopes of the Third World," he adds.
On a more serious note, Chai says that the collaborators "don't think our play will make some huge blow against the big media machine, the government machine, the corporate machine. But Noam Chomsky always said Martin Luther King didn't come out of nowhere; there were all kinds of small movements happening," he points out.
"We've created the play to speak to all sorts of people. We would like people who completely agree with the States and think we're nuts to come and see the play," he says. "One thing I can guarantee is that people are not going to be bored."

Cahoots Theatre Projects and NeWorld Theatre present The Adventures of Ali and Ali and the Axes of Evil from February 18 to March 7 at Theatre Passe Muraille. For tickets and information, call 416.504.PLAY (7529).

Publication Date: 2004-02-15
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