The Belfry Theatre announced Tuesday it has pulled a controversial play from its Spark Festival lineup for March, saying it does not want to add to tensions amid conflict in the Middle East.
The Runner, a one-man play that focuses on the experience of a volunteer with ZAKA, an ultra-Orthodox rescue service in Israel, has been the subject of duelling petitions asking that it be either kept or removed.
The play deals with the political and community fallout after a ZAKA volunteer decides to save a Palestinian woman who has been accused of being a perpetrator of violence, leaving a fatally wounded Israeli soldier behind.
In a statement, the Belfry said The Runner was booked for the SPARK Festival about a year ago in the spirit of presenting contemporary work “with ideas that often generate dialogue.”
“However, we believe that presenting The Runner at this particular time does not ensure the well-being of all segments of our community,” it said. “This has not been an easy decision, and we are grateful to our community for sharing various perspectives which added to our understanding.”
Members of the Belfry leadership have not responded to requests for further comment.
Several dozen pro-Palestinian activists walked out partway through a tense three-hour community meeting held at the Belfry on Dec. 22, saying their concerns about the play were not being heard.
Stickers and graffiti saying “Free Palestine” were plastered outside the Belfry Theatre entrance last month.
A petition calling for the play’s cancellation and a “cultural boycott” of Israel received more than 1,200 signatures.
A counter-petition started by Jonathan Gustin to keep The Runner at the Belfry had attracted more than 2,100 signatures as of Tuesday.
Written and performed by Toronto-based artistic director and playwright Christopher Morris, The Runner has been touring on and off in Canada since its debut about five years ago.
Morris, who could not immediately be reached for comment on Tuesday, said in a 2018 interview with theatre website Broadway World that The Runner focuses on the moral dilemma for some ZAKA members when the organization announced in 2015 that it would begin treating Jewish victims over the perpetrators of violence in contradiction of the rules of triage and the Hippocratic oath.
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