FIG TREES is a documentary opera about AIDS activists Tim McCaskell of Toronto and Zackie Achmat of Capetown as they fight for access to treatment drugs. Documentary interviews, speeches, press conferences and demonstrations are sampled, taken apart, and set to music, replayed this time as operatic scenes. A surreal fictional narrative is intercut with the stories of their struggles against government and the pharmaceutical industry. In this fictional world, Gertrude Stein decides to write a tragic opera about Tim and Zackie and their saint-like heroism. She kidnaps them, transports them to Niagara Falls, and forces them to sing a series of complicated avant-garde vocal compositions. However, when Zackie ends his treatment strike and starts taking his pills, Gertrude realizes that there will be no more tragedy, and thus, no more opera.
John Greyson
Director
Van Abrahams
Christopher Moraka
Zackie Achmat
Christopher Moraka
Stephen Chen
Saint Caesura
Ezra Perlman
St. Martin
Ashton Williams
Nkosi Johnson
Denise Williams
St. Teresa of Avila
David Wall
Tim McCaskell
Deborah Overes
Gertrude Stein
Mark Hartmeier
St. Peregrine
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