Review: (Victoria) Home is a Beautiful Word

Youshie Bancroft (photo by David Bakuch)

A Community Given a Voice
Homelessness in Victoria Takes Centre Stage
by Morgan McPherson

Last night, I had the honour of seeing Joel Bernbaum's Home is a Beautiful Word (directed by Michael Shamata) performed at the Belfry Theatre. I was glued to my seat, riveted by the honesty and emotion that was portrayed onstage, and I felt privileged to be a part of the mind-expanding performance that took place.  But let me back up a second.

Homelessness is a big topic, and a sensitive one. There are such a wide range of emotions that people experience when reflecting back on their encounters with those that are homeless. There are a lot of misconceptions, a lot of prejudices, a lot of anger, and a lot of sadness swirling around the issues. Joel Bernbaum conducted over 500 interviews with Victoria's homeless, and the result is an eye-opening piece of verbatim theatre that shines a light on the thoughts, feelings and experiences of the interviewees. And by verbatim, I mean every um, every sniff of a tear held back, every curse word and every stutter were faithfully transcribed and beautifully performed by the five talented actors onstage. Each interviewee's interview started with two open-ended questions: "Homelessness is…?" and "Home is."

The Question... Playwright Joel Bernbaum on Home Is a Beautiful Word

Talk to Me About "Home"
by Estelle Rosen

Joel Bernbaum is an actor, playwright, journalist and the co-artistic director of Sum Theatre. He is a graduate of Carleton University, where he did his Master's Thesis on Verbatim Theatre's Relationship to Journalism. Later this year Dancing Sky Theatre will produce his play Operation Big Rock and Sum Theatre will tour My Rabbi (co-written with Kayvon Kelly) to the Edinburgh Festival. Both of these plays have also received workshops at the Belfry Theatre.

CHARPO: Clearly verbatim theatre has long been of interest considering it was an element in your thesis. What was the process for this play particularly the follow-up interviews asking participants to pose questions as well as answer, and your holistic look at homelessness.

BERNBAUM: Verbatim theatre is thriving. When I was writing my thesis on verbatim theatre's relationship to journalism, there were several examples on the Canadian theatre scene alone of powerful and popular verbatim theatre productions. Oonagh Duncan's Talk Thirty To Me - about aging. Annabel Soutar's Seeds - about a Saskatchewan farmer's fight against big business. Andew Kushnir and Project:Humanity's The Middle Place - about shelter youth. Among others, these examples show the appeal of the real. The theatre is a place where we come to imagine, and to believe in lies. But it can also be a place where we come together to hear real people speak their truths.