Victoria theatre the subject of dueling petitions over a controversial play
Posted December 30, 2023 6:13 pm.
Victoria’s Belfry Theatre is the subject of two opposing petitions relating to its plans to host a controversial play.
The play, The Runner, is a one-man show that the theatre says is about a volunteer with an Orthodox Jewish volunteer force in Israel that searches for dead and dying people after violent incidents.
A group called Teach for Liberation started a petition on Change.org Dec. 19 calling for the removal of the play, saying it features “violent and racist rhetoric of Zionism from an exclusively Israeli perspective.”
“We are currently witness to the ongoing genocide in Palestine that has killed 20,000+ people including 7,800+ children, and we struggle to understand why the Belfry would choose to center the voices of the oppressors instead of the oppressed,” the group’s petition reads.
Since its creation, the petition had garnered 1,200 signatures by Dec. 30.
Four days later, another petition was created on the same platform, this one by a group calling itself Free the Belfry. This petition asked for the theatre to keep the play as scheduled, citing free speech.
“We urge the Belfry Theatre to resume plans to stage The Runner in March 2024 rather than to capitulate to those who would silence artists on the basis of the religion or nationality of their characters,” says the group’s petition, which as of Dec. 30 had received close to 2,000 signatures.
The theatre responsed to the original petition, which it posted before the second petition was created, said, “We are taking time to reflect on how best to move forward and will make an announcement in the new year.”
The play is scheduled to run at the theatre in March. Tickets haven’t yet gone on sale, but the theatre said copies of the script will be available at its box office after Jan. 8 for people to come by and read.
