The Public Servant

The Public Servant is a collaborative work which began in the spring of 2011. Over a two year period the ensemble will meet to write and improvise. It is slated for a full production in the 2013-2014 season.

Broadly put, The Public Servant is about the women who administrate the country and the impact their work has on the lives of individual Canadians.

The work of the federal civil service turns the values and ambitions of a nation into practical goals. Sometimes the actions of public servants can be effective — but too often they are annoying or absurd or, every now and then, scandalous. The public service has been the subject of literature and performance in every culture and generation. The British have excelled at satirizing and exposing its inefficiency and corruption. Vaclav Havel and his eastern bloc colleagues were threatened with jail and execution for satirizing their civil service. Our play blends tones to create something that is both dark and funny.

The material for this play has been mined from the events and practices of the different generations of Canadian civil servants going back to the 1930s. The company conducted interviews with 15 civil servants and researched primary source material, which led us to focus on three different areas of bureaucratic significance: the internment of Japanese Canadians during World War II; the daily practices of the Revenue Canada Agency (taxation); and the regulation of industry and the environment.

We are not so much exploring these issues in a documentary way, as examining the lives of three low-level administrators faced with important matters. The public is an unseen character in the play, and catastrophe is the shadow that lurks over and through the actions of these women. Our work will revel in the dynamic between banal daily practices and powerful civic obligations.

The audience is an important element of the style of work and the tone of the play. Transparency and accountability are key principles guiding today’s public practices. We hope to experiment theatrically with this idea and introduce an element of audience participation into the proceedings.

The next phase of work is to create scenes and narrative. Over the winter (November – February) we go into the rehearsal room to improvise. At the end of this period, the material will be shaped into a script and prepared for public presentation this summer at one of the summer fringe festivals. The final writing phase takes place over the 2012-2013 season and will include designers, sound, lighting and set.