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.
Direction
Greyson turns documentary into Brechtian fever dream with zero apologies.
Writing
Stein's meta-narrative about opera-making is deliciously cruel and self-aware.
Production
Smashes together interview footage, opera, and fiction like they always belonged.
Director
John Greyson
Trivia, insights & behind the scenes
Zackie Achmat's actual treatment strike (1998-2003) forced South Africa to provide free antiretrovirals; he refused medication until all poor South Africans could access it.
John Greyson originally staged this as a live opera installation at Toronto's Luminato Festival before filming it—Gertrude Stein was played by a different actor in each performance.
US
CA
