Return

Peter Fechter: 59 Minutes

About the Production

Matchstick Theatre presented Jordan Tannahill’s Peter Fechter: 59 Minutes at the Bus Stop Theatre from March 1st-4th, 2018.

Half documentary, Peter Fechter tells the very real story of two boys who attempt to join the many who defected into West Berlin by crossing the Berlin Wall. The attempt, however, results in eighteen-year-old Peter getting shot in the lower pelvis. He lay between the border’s barricades for approximately an hour before dying from this injury.

Half conceptualization, Tannahill expertly navigates these fifty-nine minutes from gunshot to final breath, exploring what could possibly have motivated Peter to risk his life to cross the wall. What can matter to us so much that we risk everything for it?

Poster Design by Colleen Arcturus MacIsaac
Photography by Samm Fisher (Samm Fisher Photography)

some moments

About

Jordan Tannahill

Jordan Tannahill (b. 1988) is a novelist, playwright, and director of film and theatre. From 2008 – 2016, Jordan wrote and directed plays through his theatre company Suburban Beast. The company’s work was staged in theatres, art galleries, and found spaces, often with non-traditional collaborators like night-shift workers, frat boys, preteens, and employees of Toronto’s famed Honest Ed’s discount emporium. From 2012 – 2016, in collaboration with William Ellis, Jordan ran the alternative art space Videofag out of their home in Toronto’s Kensington Market neighbourhood. Over the four years of its operation, Videofag became an influential incubator for queer and avant-garde work in the city. The Videofag Book was published by Book*hug Press in 2017. In 2019, CBC Arts named Tannahill as one of sixty-nine LGBTQ Canadians, living or deceased, who has shaped the country’s history.
Learn more