Robert Lepage says controversial SLAV play ‘reworked and ‘rewritten’

Dec 28, 2018 | 11:56 AM

MONTREAL — Renowned Quebec director Robert Lepage says his previously cancelled play about black slavery has been rewritten and reworked before it is presented once again on stage next month.

Lepage published a long public letter today in which he acknowledges what he calls his clumsiness and misjudgments in his early production of “SLAV,” which drew the ire of black activists for its alleged racial insensitivity.

The play included a mostly white cast picking cotton and singing black slave songs and was cancelled following a brief run last summer during the Montreal International Jazz Festival.

Activists protested outside the theatre and accused Lepage of appropriating black pain for profit.

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Lepage says in his letter that he met the group of activists and opened an important dialogue about the concept of cultural appropriation.

He says he invited a member of the group to rehearsals of SLAV to witness changes made to the show before it is remounted across Quebec in 2019.

The Canadian Press