Cultural Memories, Reaction Paper Example

Theater helps transmit and transform cultural memories within the context of Toronto because these productions take ideas from the people and artists remake these ideas into concepts that could be understood and appreciated by a large audience. Therefore, these productions both reflect the people of Toronto, but allow the artists to relate with the public in a more meaningful way that helps relay these understandings. Toronto is a unique place for theater because it is a multicultural community. As such, local productions reflect this, as there are many shows featuring individuals of specific ethnic and cultural backgrounds in addition to instances in which these individuals interact.

I recently went to a showing of “Small Axe”, which adequately reflects an understanding of the importance of diversity to the Toronto community. Ultimately, the show demonstrates that it is important to think of others in the context that they understand themselves, which is an essential component of establishing tolerance. In this particular example, a queer man appears to be biased against individuals that are homophobic, which is ironic. However, over time, he comes to learn that he judged these individuals incorrectly, as many of the people living in Jamaica were simply misunderstood, just as he was regularly misunderstood in the United States. This story is an extremely modern one, and it is likely that many similar theatrical performances will be developed in the future. As Canada continues to become more diverse, artists will continue to tell these stories of acceptance both as personal reflections of their own lives and as a message to the audience that this acceptance should be perpetuated.