An unconventional opera, Condemned: A Work in Progress, opens Friday at Vancouver’s Carnegie Community Centre. The show means to expose the plight of homeless people in Vancouver’s downtown east side. One writer, Patrick Foley, has firsthand experience living without a home. He told CBC News, “I can imagine some people who sleep on streets or under viaducts, some of my friends sleep that way. It's not a life. All you're concerned with is survival." The one act opera is meant to protest housing issues in the city, which seems to be a big concern for Vancouver. To add emotion to their efforts the planners cast the entire opera with homeless people from the area. Most of them had no experience on a stage, and this raises concern about the quality of the musical aspect of the performance. Nevertheless, it an interesting form of protest, and will probably be a great show. Tickets are already sold out. Claimed anyway- the show is predictably free.
“Opera tells tales of Vancouver's Downtown Eastside” CBCnews. http://www.cbc.ca/canada/british-columbia/story/2006/10/27/opera-homeless.html
Photo from: http://www.city.vancouver.bc.ca/commsvcs/CARNEGIECENTRE/