For 36 hours, Mississauga native Tommy Taylor was part of the largest mass arrest in Canadian history at the G20 protest. Twenty-three of those hours were spent with almost 40 other men in a 10 by 20 foot cell, without sufficient food or water. Yet, Taylor was starkly reminded of his privilege as a straight white male: out of all the prisoners, he, by far, was not the worst off.
Young women were unlawfully strip-searched, and male officers would pointedly watch them use the doorless port-a-potty. Queer and “queer-looking” detainees were segregated. In Taylor’s own cell, two Aboriginal men were unfazed by the situation. “Welcome to our club,” one said.
And so, vested with the power of public approval, Taylor recounts this story to the audience in a 75-minute play. Do not go in expecting a play in the traditional sense; it’s more like a long monologue.
There is no artistic pretense, no dramatic silences, and no second-hand embarrassment from watching someone overact. It’s storytelling at its barest bones. Except for a 15-minute stint where volunteer extras storm the stage to recreate the crowded conditions of the cell, Taylor sits at a table, and tells you his story from the start as if you were a very patient, quiet reporter.
You Should Have Stayed At Home doesn’t warrant the “I should have stayed at home” jokes. Taylor is telling a significant story for our time, turning a personal account into a highly political presentation of the police force’s broken system of accountability — very few officers at the G20 protest were ever charged, despite external reviews stating that there had been a gross violation of the 1,100 people who were arrested.
Aboriginal men were unfazed by the situation. “Welcome to our club,” one said.
Though the monotony of listening to someone talk for an hour and 15 minutes never hits excruciating — he sure does a lot better than most of my profs — one man’s voice doesn’t have quite enough punch for someone with certain expectations of entertainment.
Much of the script is word-for-word recitation of the gone-viral 11,000-word Facebook note that Taylor wrote after returning home from the detention center. For someone who has already read it, watching the play is practically redundant. But if you’re a person who considers yourself politically aware, You Should Have Stayed At Home is worth a go.
As of the first run of this show in Toronto two years ago, many Canadians still had no idea about this version of events that had happened.
“It was my first time being on the other side,” Taylor says and recounts seeing a police officer lying through his teeth to a television reporter about the treatment of protestors at the rallies. Since then, he has been closely following the cases of the officers who had been at the G20 protests. Many retired before they could ever be charged, others went on paid leave, and others escaped unscathed by their actions.
Taylor began to realize that there was no way that he could forget about the events at G20, even if he wanted to. “The things I saw at G20 just keep repeating themselves, at Idle No More, at the Québec student protests, everywhere.”
Western society has increasingly demonized the protester, with help from the police, media depictions, and government, Taylor continues. During the Occupy protests, any addicts or mentally ill people that the police picked up were given a choice — to go to jail or be taken to Occupy. And so the camps were flooded with people who should have been in rehab or therapy.
“The very fact that so many forces are at work to devalue protests should show the value of protests. But you don’t fight that hard against something that doesn’t work.”
