Moving the centre : two plays, Small axe & Freedom singer

Summary/Review: "Moving the Centre: Two Plays: Small Axe & Freedom Singer explores the original work of two documentary theatre makers who simultaneously dare, fumble, and persist in their belief that the arts can help us dialogue across differences. With personal essays complementing the plays, the book's literal middle offers a verbatim dialogue between the authors wherein they argue for the theatre as a vital ritual for our times. Small Axe charts the quest of a queer white playwright, Andrew Kushnir, who - because of an unsettling moment with a friend - is compelled to investigate homophobia in Jamaica. What starts as an artist researching an injustice "elsewhere" evolves into a startling excavation of the self and the stories we claim of others. Through a constellation of recorded encounters with activists, refugees, journalists, ministers, patient teachers and vivid critics, Small Axe asks "to whom does an injustice belong?" Freedom Singer is the theatrical iteration of Khari Wendell McClelland's multidisciplinary and personal history project of the same name. Constructed from hard-won historic material and family lore, this musical/verbatim theatre hybrid documents Khari's search for his ancestral grandmother, Kizzy. His "map" to her is far from conventional: he's learning the songs she likely sang during her escape through the Underground Railroad."--