After 9/11 happened, things changed dramatically at the border. What used to be simple and carefree became complicated and scary; there was an air of paranoia about travel and about who could and should be allowed to cross the border into the United States.
After that fateful September morning, Tim Carlson had a very difficult time crossing the border for more than a decade. Not because he did or said anything that was cause for concern, but because he happened to share the same name, birth date and place of birth as another Tim Carlson—one who happened to be placed on a watchlist by the American government for spewing rhetoric around weapons, explosives and domestic terrorism.
A long, late-night talk with a border security agent who was willing to listen solved his immigration problem, but—not surprisingly—the experience stuck with him, piquing his interest in subjects around cyber-surveillance and how breaches in online privacy can impact our everyday lives.
It also formed the germ for Theatre Conspiracy's critically acclaimed and groundbreaking theatrical production, Foreign Radical—which is making its highly anticipated debut at Alderney Landing in Dartmouth from Oct. 4-6 as part of the Prismatic Arts Festival and in partnership with Eastern Front Theatre.
“What people will experience in the show is that this can really happen to anyone if things go sideways, and that’s really the foundation part of this piece,” says Carlson, the writer and co-creator of Foreign Radical.
The production itself began development in 2011 and first opened for audiences in 2015. It’s been touring nationally and internationally ever since.
“The show went through a few interests and iterations, but we landed on border politics because it became a very big issue leading up to 2015 with the Muslim ban and different American laws,“ says Carlson in an interview with The Coast. “We thought it would be interesting to figure out how you explore issues of cyber surveillance in a theatre setting.”
In the online space, there is lots of opportunity for people to argue, collaborate and debate these issues, but Theatre Conspiracy figured out a way to physicalize that experience IRL; a place where an audience of 30 people collaborate, compete, investigate, debate and spy on each other. It’s theatre as a game.
The Foreign Radical set is divided into four playing areas where participants—depending on personal and group responses to various questions posed by the game’s host—witness different perspectives on the action. They are at times divided into groups, or left all alone to gather evidence from dramatic scenes and documentary media that colour their views and how they play the game.
“One of the main themes that we were exploring in developing the piece was around Arab Spring taking place all over the Middle East,” explains co-artistic director David Mesiha. “One of the phenomena that was coming up was how people can arrive in a place on one side and then quickly end up on the other side. And so the idea of people getting split and rejoined was an interesting thing to explore.”
The show also leverages the Watchlist and Guidance document—a private government document leaked during the Bush administration—which basically gave rules and guidelines for border and homeland security to decide how to put people on a terrorism watchlist.
“The list became a kind of linchpin for the production and exploring how we profile people,” says Mesiha. “Audiences engage in a series of different questions…and they are at all times getting different kinds of information about each other and about the piece.”
The audience is following the story of a fictional character named Hassam, and they are tasked with deciding whether or not he should be placed on the watchlist. But very quickly, as the show evolves, it becomes less about the assignment itself and more about each audience and their own specific biases, ideas and beliefs.
“One of the things to mention is that although it is an interactive and immersive show, at no point are audiences placed in an uncomfortable position in terms of being singled out,” says Mesiha. “Everybody is together on-stage for the whole duration of the show.”
Kat McCormack, Eastern Front Theatre’s artistic director, says audiences will be profoundly altered by the show—just like she was when she first experienced it.
“I really didn’t know what was going on, but it was so exciting and I was honestly shocked by how much my privilege showed up and how fun it was to be confronted with that,” says McCormack. “I went back the next night with some friends and we had totally different experiences even though we were in the same space; it was really goosebumpy.”
McCormack believes that it is a distinct privilege to get to see work like this and for the east coast to “get to” have this show, and hopes that audiences don’t miss out on the opportunity.
Foreign Radical runs from Oct. 4-6, 2024 as part of the Prismatic Arts Festival at the Alderney Landing Theatre in Downtown Dartmouth. Tickets are Pay-What-You-Can-Afford with tiered pricing options ($15 / $25 / $35 + fees). Tickets are available here.