Maarika Freund, founder of “MAARIKA IS FUNNY” Productions, is the writer, director and performer of PEACHES: THE PLAY!, which is having it’s world premiere at the 2023 Vancouver Fringe Festival. Synopsis: It’s the dystopian future of 2028, and Maarika finally has a big audition! Only, there’s a catch: she has to audition for the role of Harvey Weinstein. We chatted with Maarika to learn more. —Noa Nichol
You’re making your Vancouver Fringe Festival debut with PEACHES: THE PLAY!! Congrats! Are you excited? What are you most looking forward to?
Thank you so much! I just had the world-premiere performance this afternoon and it was a whole lot of fun. There were lots of chuckles & laughs in all of the right places, so as a performer & creator I’m so happy with how it went and is being received so far. So yes – I’m really excited! As for what it is that I’m looking forward to most, it’s definitely connecting and meeting other creators, especially ones who are identifying women. I love meeting strong, brilliant women. I just had the opportunity to see the opening performance of Conversations with Penny, which was written and performed by Amanda Jane Porter. It was such a moving piece about her relationship with her late mother, and Amanda is able to hold the audience beautifully throughout the entire show. I highly suggest checking out her show, too!
What the play about? How is it based on your real life? What can audiences expect to see/learn?
PEACHES: THE PLAY! Is set in the dystopian future of 2028, where a woman (who also happens to be named Maarika) finally has a big audition! Only there’s a catch: she has to audition for the role of Harvey Weinstein. The play is inspired by my real life experience with coming forward. I have to say that I wasn’t really ever planning on coming forward, but I received a set of text messages from my attacker that were really alarming. He told me that he forgave me for what happened that evening, and implied that I should be thanking him for the spiritual growth that I was able to experience because of the happening. So I was genuinely scared that if I didn’t finally say anything to the police that he would continue to hurt other women. The further I got from that set of text messages, though, the more funny they became to me. Not because they were funny (they were really scary, actually!), but because the whole thing seemed so absurd. How do you get to that place, mentally, where you decided that the right thing to do is to forgive your victims? It’s so insane that, to me, as the years passed it became incredibly funny. So I decided to make a play about it. Actually, I started joking about it on the stand-up comedy circuit in Tel Aviv once the publication ban on my name was lifted. Then I decided to write a play about it. But like many other identifying women, I’m a bit scared of where our future is heading after witnessing a lot of backwards movement when it comes to our autonomy over our bodies. Namely witnessing the overturning of Roe vs. Wade in the USA. The text messages that catapulted me into coming forward also always felt foreboding to me, too. If attackers are now finding ways to justify their behaviour, is everything we’ve worked for up to now when it comes to all things #MeToo also going to evaporate? Will the victims (and women, especially) ever get to have their triumphant comeback? These are a couple of the questions that the play asks of its audience. But while they’re big questions, the audience should feel safe enough to laugh, especially since I take them on a bit of a wild ride, as they actually get to watch the character Maarika audition for the role of Harvey Weinstein!
We understand that you’ll be tackling some tough issues; where does comedy/humour come in?
Humour, to me, is always the WD40 that helps get the sticky, uncomfortable stuff unstuck. I think it’s so important because it has the ability to create a safe entryway into the really important, but difficult, conversations we all need to be having. And especially when it comes to all things #MeToo I find it’s a really powerful tool. The Bill Cosby allegations were brought back to the light again after Hanibal Buress joked about it in one of his stand-up comedy sets as it inspired a lot of women to finally come forward. But while I believe that humour is important, I don’t joke about sexual assault. It’s everything around it that I joke about. The humour is in the absurdity of the situation the character is in, even though it’s a really painfully honest situation. Finding the humour in these situations has also given me the ability to take a lot of my own power back. It’s a way for me to say: “Hey! Even though that horrible thing happened, I’m still me.” I’ve always loved comedy, and loved being edgy with my humour. So the comedy is also a way for me to come back to myself and own my narrative in a way that feels empowering to me.
You’re also the founder of My Voice, My Choice; tell us about that?
The founder is very generous! No, I’m simply a founding member of My Voice, My Choice (MVMC), which is an initiative created by Canadian victim-complainants, for Canadian victim-complainants to amend Criminal Code section 486.4 so that no person is ever forced into silence due to an unwanted publication ban. It’s very fearlessly led by an incredible woman named Morrell Andrews, and I’m so proud to get to stand beside her, and so many other incredible humans who are working towards amending this section of the Criminal Code. A publication ban is an order the Court makes that prevents anyone from publishing, broadcasting, or transmitting any information that could identify a victim-complainant or witness who participates in the criminal justice system. The publication ban is intended to allow victims, complainants, or witnesses to participate in the justice system without suffering the negative consequences of being publicly identified. So in theory they’re really wonderful. But in practice, because of how section 486.4 of the Criminal Code is worded, these bans also make it illegal for anyone who has a publication ban placed on their name to tell their own story. A publication ban was placed on my name, without my consent, after I came forward. And, it was next to impossible to have it lifted. I had to hire two lawyers and pay out of pocket to fix a mistake that was made by my Crown Attorney. In fact, before the publication ban on my name was lifted, doing PEACHES: THE PLAY! would have been a federal crime that could have landed me up to two years in prison, so this play is a pretty big deal for me! MVMC was founded by a good number of victim-complainants who also went through the same exhausting, excruciating process trying to lift a publication ban. Some of the founding members still have publication bans on their names and can’t yet be public about the incredible work that they’re doing. This issue affects a lot of people, but you would never know it because of the silence that they’re forced into. What breaks my heart the most about these bans is that they make it illegal for women to help each other. Before my ban was lifted, I felt like I had to seek out information on “the black market for feminism”. So while so much of the world was having open discussions on all things #MeToo online, I wasn’t legally allowed to participate. I mean, I could participate, but in a very limited way, which was frustrating and painful. I couldn’t ever say: “I learned this important piece of information from first hand experience”. I felt like I had all of this authority on the subject matter that I wasn’t ever allowed to use. I don’t ever want any woman to have to go through what I went through, or feel the way that I felt, and part of that is being able to finally talk about what goes on in the courtroom. We have to be able to talk about our experiences if we want to see things change for the better. So amending this section of the criminal code is really important to me.
Technical details: where and when is the show, and how do we snag tickets?
The show is at The NEST at 1398 Cartwright Street in Vancouver (on Granville Island), and the dates are:
Thursday, September 7th @ 5:15 PM
Sunday, September 10th @ 9:00 PM
Monday, September 11th @ 7:00 PM
Wednesday, September 13th @ 7:30 PM
Saturday, September 16th @ 9:30 PM
Sunday, September 17th @ 4:30 PM
And you can snag your tickets here: https://www.vancouverfringe.com/events/peaches-the-play/
If you want to keep in touch, or check out my podcast of the same name, feel free to head over to: www.maarikafreund.com/peaches. And if you feel called and would like to support the play & work I’m involved in, you can do so here: https://gofund.me/a4bf7259. Wishing everyone only the best as we all continue navigating this incredibly intense planet that we all live on!
vancouverfringe.com
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