• Skip to primary navigation
  • Skip to main content
  • Skip to footer
Injured Workers Online

Injured Workers Online

Working Together for Justice

  • Blog
  • Sign Up
  • About
  • Twitter
Working Together for Justice
  • Workers’ Compensation
    • History
    • Law Reform
    • Workers’ compensation bills
    • Chronic Pain Victory
    • Research and Education
    • Bancroft Institute
    • Meredith Conference: “No-Half Measures”
    • RAACWI
  • Issues
    • Appeals
    • Benefits
    • Experience Rating
    • Funding
    • Mental Health
    • Poverty
    • Return to Work
    • Stigma and surveillance
    • Universal Coverage
  • Community
    • Ontario Network of Injured Workers Groups (ONIWG)
    • Workers’ Comp Is a Right campaign
    • Injured Worker Groups
    • IW Speakers School
    • Injured Workers’ Stories
    • Organizing and Action
    • Arts & social justice
  • Events
    • Calendar View
    • RSI Awareness Day
    • Day of Mourning
    • Justice Bike Ride
    • Injured Workers Day
    • December demo
    • Labour Day – a workers’ festival
  • Media
    • In the News
    • Press Releases
    • Fact Sheets
    • Headlines on workers’ compensation
    • Videos
  • Resources
    • Law and Policy Submissions
    • Reports, Articles & Papers
    • Practical guides & booklets
    • IWHP Bulletins
    • Library
    • Find Legal Help
    • Links
Home / Injured Workers’ Community / Arts & social justice / Easy Money

Easy Money

Written and directed by Toronto director and writer Kate Lushington, the play “Easy Money” turned the findings of an academic study by Joan Eakin, Ellen MacEachen and Judy Clarke on the stigma faced by injured workers into a community theatre project which used also the personal experiences of the Injured Workers Theatre Collective. Funded by RAACWI and with the collaboration of Injured Workers’ Consultants and the Ontario Network of Injured Workers, the play has been performed many times since 2005, including a full production designed by Red Pepper Spectacle Arts with professional actors, puppets, video and music at Mayworks in 2007, and most recently in Feb. 2016.

The hurt of endless disbelief

Marion Endicott & Joan Eakin beside poster of "easy Money" project at CARWH conference

Using satire, the play exposes the myths of the injured worker fraudulently claiming compensation benefits rather than return to work, and vividly shows the impact of injury on workers, families, neighbours and co-workers. The workers battle the hurt of endless disbelief, Kafkaesque bureaucracy and the deeming process (“phantom work for phantom wages”)
For more on the project read “Knowledge Translation through Research-based Theatre” (Health Policy 2006 Nov.) by Joan Eakin and Marion Endicott.

First performance of Easy Money at Mayworks 2005
Making Shim puppet
Cap in Hand Puppet under umbrella
Easy Money in performance 2007
Workers hanging up the paperwork
Worker at mercy of doctor
Deeming Fairy waves her magic wand over the injured workers
The Deeming Fairy
Character of Olga in Easy Money, 2007 performance
Easy Money players on stage

Updated August 10, 2022

Footer

Stay connected – get our blog updates
Copyright © 2023 Injured Workers Online
  • Accessibility
  • Terms of Use
  • Privacy

The information in this website is for educational purposes only. It is not a substitute for legal advice. For legal advice, see Find legal help