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Controlled Damage
Controlled Damage explores the life of Canadian civil rights icon Viola Desmond and how her act of bravery in a Nova Scotia movie theatre in 1946 started a ripple effect that is still felt today. An ordinary woman forced to be extraordinary by an unyielding and racist world, Desmond never gave up — despite the personal cost to her and those who loved her. Andrea Scott’s highly theatrical examination of Desmond and her legacy traces the impact she has had on our culture, but also casts light on the slow progress of the fight for social justice and civil rights in Canada.
“There’s so much interest in seeing Desmond’s story dramatized that it’s actually a tougher ticket to get than Hamilton.” —The Globe and Mail
“There’s so much interest in seeing Desmond’s story dramatized that it’s actually a tougher ticket to get than Hamilton.” —The Globe and Mail
- GenresPlaysHistorical Fiction
114 pages, ebook
Published October 1, 2020
15 people want to read
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Displaying 1 - 2 of 2 reviews
March 29, 2023
4.5 stars.
Controlled Damage is an engaging and fascinating play about Viola Desmond, which plays out amid Black history in Canada and the US for the early and mid twentieth century. It manages to address details of Desmond's life in intimate vignettes that illuminate a broader history. It's moving and poetic. The dialogue that ranges from funny to emotional to intellectually serious. It's a great play all around. I wish I had had the chance to see it performed (it played in my city a couple months ago and I wasn't able to afford the tickets and reading it really makes me feel sadder about having had to miss it), which is one of the extremely few ways it could have been better.
Controlled Damage is an engaging and fascinating play about Viola Desmond, which plays out amid Black history in Canada and the US for the early and mid twentieth century. It manages to address details of Desmond's life in intimate vignettes that illuminate a broader history. It's moving and poetic. The dialogue that ranges from funny to emotional to intellectually serious. It's a great play all around. I wish I had had the chance to see it performed (it played in my city a couple months ago and I wasn't able to afford the tickets and reading it really makes me feel sadder about having had to miss it), which is one of the extremely few ways it could have been better.
January 20, 2022
Really well handled material.
Because it was told biographically the subject matter does not come across as a call to change, which is much easier for our audiences to digest.
The use of the white masks would be haunting, but breathtaking.
Did a wonderful job of telling the stories of black people with different skin tones.
Because it was told biographically the subject matter does not come across as a call to change, which is much easier for our audiences to digest.
The use of the white masks would be haunting, but breathtaking.
Did a wonderful job of telling the stories of black people with different skin tones.
Displaying 1 - 2 of 2 reviews