The Woods are Dark and Deep is a new, original historical drama by Mladen Obradović, a Toronto-based theatre creator. It is based on a little known historical fact that during World War I, immigrants who were living in Canada, but who came from countries that Canada was at war with, ended up interned. This included Germans, Italians, Ukrainians, Croats, Serbs, Austrians, Hungarians, Turks…. More than 8500 people were kept in 24 internment camps and receiving stations.

The story follows three Serbian men, and a Ukrainian family, parents with two children. All of these characters came to Canada to work and earn a better life for themselves and their families, but through no fault of their own ended up locked up and forced to do manual labour for several years, being payed a quarter a day.

A hundred years later, Canadian First World War Internment Recognition Fund is an organization that is dedicated to keeping the memory of these little-known events alive, and is hoping to educate future generations about the position of immigrants in our country and the ordeals that they had to go through to integrate into the fabric of modern Canadian society. In collaboration with Pulse Theatre, they commissioned and produced this show that will educate, thrill and touch the audience, reminding them how tough our ancestors were and how their sacrifices informed our legal processes and our today’s social freedoms. The show is based on historical events and highly educational when it comes to Canadian history.

Directed by Sandra Cardinal, featuring a diverse cast of immigrant performers, as well as actors of both Serbian and Ukrainian background, and with a soundscape of beautiful Serbian traditional songs, we can’t wait for The Woods are Dark and Deep to start it’s run in Factory Theatre. We will have eight performances, March 21-27th, and we do hope that you will come and see it.

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For tickets click here.