In Act 1 of The Frontliners, playwright Zahida Rahemtulla’s storytelling is so unfocused it feels like nothing happens. Against all odds, Act 2 improves.
The Frontliners is about an office force of three. Working for the fictional Canadian Newcomer Agency, their job is to find housing for Syrian immigrants who are fleeing civil war and arriving in this country during the wave of Syrian immigration that took place during 2015 and 2016. It’s worth remembering that the civil war was born of resistance to the astonishingly cruel dictatorship of then-president Bashar al-Assad.
Yusuf, the office manager, is under pressure from higher-ups because his office is the only CNA branch in Vancouver that hasn’t been able to house a single family: the Splendid Hotel not only provides office space for Yusuf and his crew, it’s also providing temporary accommodation for 27 families, many of whom have been there for months.
Within this set-up, it’s hard to know where to look. Sometimes, The Frontliners seems to want to be a satire — or at least a critique — of bureaucracy. Yusuf and his recent hires, Omar and Nadia, waste precious time filling out forms, and the federal government’s financial allotment for housing is ridiculously low. The team feels hog-tied by a regulation that bars them from finding housing for folks in illegal (unpermitted) suites, which would be more affordable. Many landlords are reluctant to accept large families in apartments that weren’t designed to take that load, and some are outright racist. At the same time, the immigrant Syrian community is strongly driven by gossip: an influential barber is telling everybody to avoid Surrey, where many of the most affordable suites are. And Nadia, who is the one showing suites to families, reports that those families are often, in her view, unrealistic, turning down basement apartments with insufficient light, for instance.
The point, of course, is that these frontliners are in a vice grip but, since there’s no fully articulated critique of any aspect of this, it feels like there’s no way out. Watching characters caught in generalized stasis for the long first act is very boring.
There’s some commentary about the differences between the impersonality of Canadian bureaucracy and the highly personal communication style of the immigrant families. That’s fair enough, but it doesn’t provide much of a counterweight for the lack of narrative structure.
And it’s not like Act 1 offers well developed characters or relationships. We know that Omar escaped from one of Assad’s prisons, but we don’t know how. We know he wants to bring his family members to Canada, but we know nothing about his specific relationships with any of them. Yusuf has been with CNA for over 30 years. Nadia has just graduated from university and the formal Arabic she learned there is inapplicable in her new job. And that’s it. By intermission, that’s the sum of our knowledge.
Even the activities within the office are vague: Yusuf, Omar, and Nadia spend a lot of time flipping through file folders, an arbitrary form of busyness that has zero dramatic impact.
As I said, Act 2 gets better. The team faces a crisis that I won’t give away and Yusuf decides to defy bureaucracy in a manner I’ll keep to myself. So, at long last, there’s a clear goal. And there are meaningful obstacles to reaching it: a conflict of perspectives about the Assad regime threatens to derail the new strategy, and one of the characters trips up, unwittingly betraying their comrades. This triggers an impulse towards self-sacrifice from another team member that at least hints at relational substance.
Because there’s clear narrative tension in Act 2, it’s easier to watch but I’ve also got to say that the play’s only suggestion for making housing more available to immigrants is problematic at best.
Janavi Chawla delivers a perfectly serviceable performance as Nadia. Step by step, Adrian Neblett feels authentic as Yusuf. And playing Omar, the most fully-fledged character as written, Francis Dowlatabadi offers the most charismatic and textured portrait.
It’s important to support the development of dramatic literature from underrepresented communities. The script for The Frontliners has been through multiple dramaturgical processes, but they have not resulted in a well-structured play. I have no idea what dynamics resulted in that outcome. I hope the frankness of this review is helpful.
THE FRONTLINERS by Zahida Rahemtulla. Directed by Derek Chan. Co-produced by Blackout Art Society, Firehall Arts Centre, and Vancouver Asian Canadian Theatre. At the Firehall Arts Centre until May 11. (Tickets and information)
PHOTO CREDIT: (Francis Dowlatabadi, Janavi Chawla, and Adrian Neblett. (Photo by Sarah Race)
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