Goodness in rwanda

WINNER: Audience Choice Award, Reelworld Film Festival, Toronto

WINNER: Best Documentary Film, Thin Line Film Festival, Texas

“Goodness was one of the most significant projects in Volcano’s history. From a napkin drawing in a Toronto cafe by playwright Michael Redhill (after I pitched him an idea about writing a play somehow about “the present state of morality”), it went on to tour Canada to packed houses. It took us to New York for our debut there (at PS 122) and earned us a rave in the NY Times. It took us to Edinburgh and won us our first major international awards (Scotsman Fringe First and the Best of Edinburgh prize). It went on to Helsinki and various other remounts, and - in its most remarkable iteration - it took us across Rwanda.

That experience is almost impossible to describe - taking a play about genocide to a place that had recently been through one was beyond our capacity to fully process - but this remarkable film by Gord Rand and John Westheuser comes close to doing just that. It is one of the few films about theatre that really works, that really shows what theatre can achieve, and what it struggles with. I am indebted to Gord and Tara Hughes (the film's producer who, like Gord, was also in the cast!) for making this beautiful thing happen. It is no surprise it won the awards it did. It’s a testament to what we do, as theatre artists.”

a smallboy and randink production