Gilberto Fernandes

Photos by William Paul. More photos here.

The play “Basta! No More Fear! Remembering the Hoggs Hollow Disaster of 1960,” which I co-wrote with the distinguished labour historians Craig Heron and Franca Iacovetta, directed by Aida Jordao, and performed by the Toronto Workers’ Theatre Group (TWTG) was a great success! Part of this year’s Mayworks Festival of Working People and the Arts, the play, on stage at the United Steelworkers hall on 25 Cecil St. between May 7 and 11, “sold out” (tickets were free) every day, which amounted to total audience of about 500 people.

Several audience members said this was the best play yet by the TWTG – part of the Toronto Workers History Project (TWHP) – which has been around since 2018. Lots of audience members stayed for the Q&A session that followed each performance. Many of them highlighted the importance of remembering this largely forgotten tragic episode that beame a catalyst for the organization of immigrant construction workers (especially Italians) in Toronto and how public memory can be a fruitful space of labour and social justice activism. Other common request from audience members was for the group to show this play again in other venues, including in schools. The members of the TWTG are considering the possibility of performing this important play again, while accounting for the practical challenges associated with it being an amateur theatre group with very limited resources.

A video recording of the play’s dress rehaersal is available in the TWHP’s website, here.