Tarragon Theatre has a thrilling and thought provoking World Premiere co-production on the boards this November. Working with Modern Times Stage Company and Theatre ARTaud to bring this story to life, CRAZE is sure to be a unique and exciting experience. I asked playwrights Rouvan Silogix and Rafeh Mahmud about their inspiration for this play, we talk about their previous projects, and what other stories they’re excited to tell.
- Could you please introduce yourself to my readers and tell them a bit about your role with CRAZE?
We are two brothers, who grew up in Pakistan. We’ve been working in theatre and TV /Film since our mid-teens – we’re writers, directors, actors, producers, and classical piano players (yes us both :P). We’ve (forcibly) lived around the world, and now are delighted to call Canada our home. We’re the playwrights of CRAZE – which is everything and nothing – theatre (if not all performing arts) are a collaborative medium – no matter how great / dynamic we write a character, the performers have to meet us half-way, and then turn the words on page into exciting and compelling theatre. Likewise, working with Mike (Director) and Jeff (Dramaturg) along with the host of incredible designers, technicians, producers – it really does take a village to create a play. In this way, we couldn’t be prouder of the outcome – theatre is meant to be seen not read (otherwise why would anyone watch a play?) And in this regard, for us as playwrights, the collaborative artistic evolution of the show is the magic that makes great theatre.
- I absolutely LOVED The Caged Bird Sings; it’s certainly one of the most unique productions I’ve seen. What was it like getting to present that work at the Aga Khan Museum?
Thank you so much for your kind words, we really do appreciate it, and the support. It was definitely awesome working with the Aga Khan Museum – we felt an incredible opportunity to connect with our audiences, and specifically to the Brown, Persian, Arab, Desi, Muslim, and (in-general) the beautiful international / globalized community that uniquely exists in Toronto. Rumi is eternal and expansive, and even though we do have ‘priority’ communities we do engage, we see that audiences of all identity-stripes and colors enjoy and attend our work. This is really beautiful to us – the onset of the company, Soheil Parsa was the strongest proponent of Humanism, an ideology we strongly share – that we’re more similar than we’re different, and are far more interested in what binds and connects us than what separates us. There are so few “Brown” institutions in North America (period), and it’s amazing that we have the spectacular museum right here in Toronto. The opportunity to present a unique imagining of Rumi at the museum was too good for us to pass up :). We’d also like to say Mikaela Davies and Navtej Sandhu are such amazing performers and collaborators, along with the designers (Waleed Ansari, Niloufar Ziaee, and John Gzowski) really made our vision come to beautiful and exquisite fruition.
- Was there a particular moment or event which inspired CRAZE?
We started this process in COVID, when we felt really isolated and lacking human connection. Along with that the political upheaval and rebellion from the societal normative, and felt a unique artistic opportunity to bring together what we’re craving, and what is dividing society so. We can’t ever portend to have the answers to have the answers to the most profound questions in our present sociopolitical discourse – all we can hope to do as artists is to re-ask the question in different and new ways, in the hope that we can provide our audiences a different way to see the same issues.
- I really like the idea of “taking our ever-complicated histories from the east and the west and throwing them into a living room.” What is it about living room dramas that draw you to that mode of writing?
For us, living in the east and west, we’ve always had complicated identity structures thrust upon us – growing up Muslim (Ismaili now Atheist), going to a Catholic school, Pakistani-Tanzanian is what we say for ease, but our grandmother from our mom’s side is a Turkmen. Surrounded by immense poverty, anarchy, and kindness, then moving to the west, being taught things like “surrealism” emerged in Europe in 1900s (even though Rumi, and many were writing such things waaaay before), and having different identity qualities suddenly now thrust on us – we feel the craze of it all most personally. We see different and similar social structures everywhere, and the respective reverence they are served by people deeply stuck within them. Is there no objective truth? How do we reckon with all this? We say with levity and seriousness, throwing it all into a living-room, where real-life breathing characters have to deal with each other, but most of all, themselves. And for us- that’s what it comes down to – what makes us us? What does it mean to be human? Or Brown or Black or Asian or Latino or White? Or cis or trans or men or women or non-binary or two-spirit? When we look at Canadian Futurism, and indeed Global Futurism, we don’t see any other way than us all (all meaning all) come together and, for lack of a better word, ‘deal’ with each other – yes it’ll be painful, but there can be no release or catharsis or evolution without going through the pain. The alternative, we fear, is much more scary.
- Is there another epic tale or ancient story you’re wanting to bring to the stage?
Truthfully… so so many. We’re developing iterations of Ubu Roi, Faustus (Thomas Mann, Goethe, and Marlowe all combined), Khan vs. Kahn (based on global mythical cycle-of-violence stories), 1001 Arabian Nights (deeply re-imagined :)), a mix of Layla & Majnun & Don Quixote, among others. Stay tuned – the future is always more exciting than what’s passed :).
I want to thank Rouvan and Rafeh for taking the time to answer my questions. Craze is on stage now at Tarragon Theatre’s Mainspace. For more information and tickets, visit: Craze – Tarragon Theatre
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