Fig Trees

Fig Trees (2009)

DocumentaryMusic

FIG TREES is a documentary opera about AIDS activists Tim McCaskell of Toronto and Zackie Achmat of Capetown as they fight for access to treatment drugs. Documentary interviews, speeches, press conferences and demonstrations are sampled, taken apart, and set to music, replayed this time as operatic scenes. A surreal fictional narrative is intercut with the stories of their struggles against government and the pharmaceutical industry. In this fictional world, Gertrude Stein decides to write a tragic opera about Tim and Zackie and their saint-like heroism. She kidnaps them, transports them to Niagara Falls, and forces them to sing a series of complicated avant-garde vocal compositions. However, when Zackie ends his treatment strike and starts taking his pills, Gertrude realizes that there will be no more tragedy, and thus, no more opera.

Director: John Greyson

Casts

	Van Abrahams as Christopher Moraka
	Zackie Achmat as Christopher Moraka
	Stephen Chen as Saint Caesura
	Ezra Perlman as St. Martin
	Ashton Williams as Nkosi Johnson
	Denise Williams as St. Teresa of Avila
	David Wall as Tim McCaskell
	Deborah Overes as Gertrude Stein
	Mark Hartmeier as St. Peregrine
	Justin Bacchus as Christopher Moraka
	Stephen McClare as Translator
	Jennifer Moore as Thabo/Manto/Rat

Crew