Beige Theatre Co is putting on David Gow's Cherry Docs, in its 20th anniversary year. The story follows Mike, a neo-Nazi Skinhead who is charged with murder, and Danny, a liberal Jewish Lawyer who is assigned as his public defender. An epic battle leaves each man marked by the other’s belief, Cherry Docs is a provocative exploration of the inescapable and insidious presence of hatred in our society.

In 2017, the themes depicted in Cherry Docs are as relevant as they were at the play's conception 20 years ago. Why is that? Why have we not listened to history? We believe that this show is particularly important to stage because, in order to reflect, we need to expose the ugliness, the hatred, the horrible acts that we as humans are capable of committing. Let us then reflect on our own realities, our own prejudices, and how our native justice system  here in Canada deals with those who are incarcerated.

Canada is a multicultural country. We know that. We are taught it in school and, for Canadians, especially those living in big cities, we see and hear it around us everyday; written on restaurant signs, advertising delectable ‘ethnic’ cuisine, and on crowded metro cars and buses where chatter abounds in a multiplicity of tongues. But what does it actually mean? What does it mean to live it? Why are hate crimes, the tensions, the injustices covered with a flashy sticker deeming Canada a ‘multicultural’ and ‘tolerant’ place. If multiculturalism leads to either a ‘melting pot’ or segregation, and tolerance implies a power dynamic, what does that say about racial, ethnic, and cultural tensions in Canada? This play is not about good and evil. It’s about how race, class, ethnicity and culture intersect and interact with the institutions that are upheld by the privileged. It’s about how the society we are complicit in shapes us. It’s about breaking that mould and the tedious process of learning and unlearning the way we interact with others. It’s about pain. It’s about hope.