Biblical book inspires tale of contemporary challenges
Dr. Heidi Janz is an award-winning playwright and scholar who researches in the Faculty of Rehabilitation Medicine at the University of Alberta. She also has cerebral palsy. Janz devotes much of her artistic work to challenging the notion that people with disabilities have a lousy quality of life. Her plays have been produced by professional theatre companies and in some cases have appeared across Canada. Her latest play The Book of Jobes will enjoy its world première in Calgary this week through a co-production between Calgary’s Fire Exit Theatre and Edmonton’s Kompany Theatre.
The play tells the story of Rachel Jobes a disabled woman tempted to end her own life because of her suffering. She appears before a heavenly tribunal to plead for sanction to die. The Book of Jobes is obviously a riff on the biblical Book of Job the story of a man who endures one tragedy after another and finally confronts God about his pain. Both stories ask one of the oldest questions: Why would a good God allow hideous things to happen to decent people?
When Janz first set out to write the play she was determined to write about violence against women specifically violence against women with disabilities. A number of years ago a burglar brutally assaulted Janz an incident that changed her life and the lives of the people around her. With this subject in mind Janz approached the play with mixed feelings. She worried that such a personal experience might be too self-indulgent for a play and that it could become “a kind of post-traumatic exercise in narcissism.” Janz relied on her personal faith to guide her in this dilemma and it was after careful reflection and what she describes as “obeying God’s calling” that she set out to write the story. Even then however the script required “a good dozen drafts before the play started to feel more like art and less like therapy” she says.
The play proved difficult to write due to circumstantial challenges. The most significant of these occurred a few years ago when she developed a severe case of pneumonia and nearly lost her life. Despite such a serious problem Janz held on to her sense of humour. “My joke was that if I survived my next play would be The Making of The Book of Jobes .”
A playwriting instructor once asked Janz why she writes about disabled characters. At the time Janz was a timid undergraduate and lacked the sophistication to articulate her creative drive. “What I now wish I had said in response was ‘I suppose I always write about disabled characters for the same reason non-disabled writers always write about non-disabled characters.’”
“The fact is” she continues “playwriting is for me an activist as well as creative act…. Theatre should be accessible to all segments of the population including people with disabilities. Making theatre accessible isn’t just about building ramps and installing elevators. To advocate for theatre as an accessible artistic medium is to contend that people with disabilities have as much a right as do the temporarily able-bodied to see their lives and their stories reflected on the stage. Over the years this has really become my artistic mission statement.”
Despite being a Christian Janz hasn’t always brought her faith into her plays. Jobes marks a development in her creative work in that it explores her identity both as a person with a disability and as a person of faith. “I love that this play opened up a space for me to artistically explore elements of both my Christian faith and my crip identity in the same work.”
Fire Exit Theatre is indeed a faith-based theatre company though it doesn’t produce preachy plays. Its production history includes works by playwrights like Caryl Churchill and Pulitzer Prize-winner Marsha Norman.
Regarding Jobes Janz says “For me the story is about three people who… wrestle with the question of how and why a good and all-powerful God would allow evil and suffering in the world.”
Janz says the play felt risky from the first moment and has tested her more than any other she’s ever written but she doesn’t regret it. “The payoff has been huge” she says.
