AIN’T TOO PROUD - REVIEW OF SPECTACULAR MUSICAL AT CAA ED MIRVISH THEATRE

Reviewed by James Karas

ain’t too proud – The Life and Times of THE TEMPTATIONS is a spectacular musical that tells what the title indicates. It is in Toronto for a short run at the CAA Ed Mirvish Theatre. It will run from December 7 to 17, 2023. Mirvish’s effusive blurb describes the show as “the electrifying new smash-hit Broadway musical that follows The Temptations’ extraordinary journey from the streets of Detroit to the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame.” 

The musical premiered in Berkeley, California in 2017 and it played in Toronto for more than a month in the fall of 2018 at the Princess of Wales Theatre. Its current brief visit to Toronto is welcome and undoubtedly successful. For those who keep track of our national artists, they should know that the production is directed by Des McAnuff. He is a master of grand musicals and this is just one of them.

The Temptations are five talented black singers and dancers who have been around with numerous changes since 1960. They sing with gusto and dance at the same time with unstoppable energy that may put Olympic athletes to shame. Their performance consists of a series of song and dance routines that leaves the audience breathless, let alone how the performers find the strength and stamina to last for more than two hours on stage.

The group was the creation of Otis Williams, a Texas-born bass-baritone who was raised in Detroit. The musical is based on his autobiography and the story of the group is told by Williams. He tells us that there have been 27 members of the group since its inception but the original five were Otis Williams (Michael Andreaus), David Ruffin (Elijah Ahmad Lewis), Melvin Franklin (Harrell Holmes Jr.), Eddie Kendricks (Jalen Harris), and Paul Williams (E. Clayton Cornelious).

Elijah Ahmad Lewis, Jalen Harris, Michael Andreaus, Harrell Holmes Jr., 
E. Clayton Cornelious from the National Touring Company of Ain’t Too Proud 
(Photo: © 2023 Emilio Madrid

I cannot overemphasize the performances of the original five and some of the replacements that we see that display vocal strength and athletic ability in dancing and singing.

The musical also features The Supremes, Diana Ross (Amber Mariah Talley), Florence Ballard (Shayla Brielle G.) and Mary Wilson (Brittney Smith)

We are treated to more than two dozen songs and you can judge their familiarity and popularity by the audience’s reactions.

The Supremes sing a medley of songs including "You Can't Hurry Love" and "Come See About Me."

With five talented people and many changes in the makeup of the group there are inevitable conflicts. David Ruffin sings with Tammi Terrell (Shayla Brielle G.) and ends up striking her. There is alcoholism, drug addiction, vehement arguments, ego trips and separations. There is also death, including Otis’s son, and a funeral, the full cycle of life. Otis Williams as our host relates the events to us but that is just background information. They then burst into song and dance with vocal fervor and athletic movements, arms flailing, feet moving frantically, all synchronized, impressive, entertaining.

Sergio Trujillo provides the over-the-top, boisterous  choreography. The scenic design by Robert Brill consists of a backdrop indicating the place where The Temptations are performing but also the names of the cities that they toured. It is a fine indicator of the supreme success of the group that they performed not just in numerous American cities but practically around the world.
___________
Ain’t too proud, The life and times of The Temptations  by Dominique Morisseau (book) based on Otis Williams’ autobiography The Temptations, with music and lyrics from The Legendary Motown Catalogue, played at The CAA Ed Mirvish Theatre, 244 Victoria St. Toronto, Ontario. www.mirvish.com

James Karas is the Senior Editor, Culture of The Greek Press

ANGELS IN AMERICA – REVIEW OF 2023 PRODUCTION AT BUDDIES IN BAD TIMES THEATRE

Reviewed by James Karas

If you want to see Tony Kushner’s epic plays Angels in America, you will have to devote two evenings and more than seven hours of intense attention. There are two parts, Angels in America, Part One, Millennium Approaches and Part Two, Perestroika. Kushner subtitles his doubleheader A Gay Fantasia on National Themes and that should give you a small handle on what to look for.

The pair of plays opened in 1991 and deal with a broad spectrum of American social issues with a focus on the AIDS epidemic of the time, homosexuality and the rise of conservatism. That Theatre Company and Buddies in Bad Times Theatre give the plays a highly effective if pared down production in the latter company’s tiny theatre on Alexander Street in Toronto.

The two plays contain numerous scenes and a complex plot that is not easily summarized but I will mention a few items to give some idea of the breadth of the play.

Kushner deals brutally, graphically and unapologetically with homosexuality and the AIDS epidemic and much more. There are eight actors who play some twenty characters. The plays go from the harshly realistic to the surreal with pungent remarks about political and social life during Ronald Reagan’s presidency and supernatural events like the appearance of angels and the ghost of Ethel Rosenberg, the American traitor who passed secrets about the atomic bomb to the Soviets. She was executed partly and perhaps mainly because of Roy Cohn, one of the lawyers who prosecuted her.

Prior Walters is a homosexual in the 20^th century (played by Allister MacDonald) but also appears as a thirteenth century ghost (played by Wade Bogert-O’Brien who also plays Joe) and a seventeenth century wigged aristocratic ghost played by Jim Mezon who also plays Roy Cohn. It gets complicated, no?

Angels in America. Poto by Nathan Nash 

The best-known character in the play is Roy Cohn, a powerful lawyer, a bisexual who denied vehemently any sexual contact with men and died of AIDS. He was a malevolent, vile and vicious man, a Rottweiler, a fraudster, an egomaniac and the quintessence of evil. Jim Mezon gives a stunning performance, capturing the evil forcefulness of Cohn with bruising effectiveness.

In his final appearance in Perestroika, we see Cohn in a hospital bed visited by Ethel Rosenberg. He hallucinates or pretends that she is his mother and begs her to sing to him. She does and it seems that he is dead but he bolts up and triumphantly announces that he fooled her and got her to sing to him. She gets the pleasure of telling him that he has been disbarred. He dies.

Joe (Wade Bogart-O’Brien) is one of the main characters, a friend of Cohn’s who tries to manipulate him. Joe is a lawyer clerking for an appellate judge, a Mormon married to the valium-addicted Harper (Christine Horne) and a homosexual who vehemently denies it.  Joes goes for long walks in Central Park and comes out of the closet and falls in love with Louis. He is abandoned by him for political reasons. Joe is a conservative and a friend of the despicable Cohn. He tries to reconcile with his wife but nothing works for him. Bogart-O’Brien gives a stellar performance.

Joe’s wife Harper (Christine Horne) has serious problems with addiction and a husband who goes out for mysterious walks in Central  Park. She hallucinates about going to the Antarctic. She has sex and imagines being in heaven but all she wants is to be in San Francisco. We presume she overcomes her hallucinations and does end up in San Francisco.

Belize (Kaleb Alexander) is a decent and caring registered nurse who has a lot stacked against him. He is black, a former drag queen, gay and decent in an indecent world. He is assigned to look after Cohn in the hospital and has enough decency to do it. Alexander also plays the flamboyant Mr. Lies, Harper’s imaginary friend who emerges from a trap door on the stage to be with her. Superb performance.

Louis (Ben Sanders) is an idealistic Jew in love with Prior Walter but when the latter contracts AIDS, he abandons him. Louis does achieve maturity and displays faith in American democracy that is buffeted by the conservatives during Ronald Reagan’s presidency in the mid 1980’s. Ironically, it is as if nothing has changed in the last forty years. Superb performance by Sanders who also plays the ghost of Prior Walter in an unrecognizable English accent.  

Prior Walter (Allister MacDonald) retains his decency despite being rejected by his lover on account of his AIDS. After his death, he returns as a ghost on two occasions played by different actors. Prior is made a prophet by the Angel but he rejects it. In the end Louis tries to rekindle the old love and relationship. Prior generously avows that he loves Louis but rejects any idea of reconciliation. Marvelous performance  

The Angel (Soo Garay) is a mysterious and intriguing figure. Her wings have been clipped or fallen off and she has the barest indication  of  them. She wants to make Prior Walter a prophet but he rejects her.     

Director Craig Pike must organize the actors and the action of a complex play in a small rectangular playing area with the audience perched on each side. The advantage is that the audience is very close to the actors but the disadvantage is that we look at the back of one actor when two of them are seated on the stage facing each other. Unless the actors are moving around, this is unavoidable but undesirable.

There is very little room for a set of almost any kind except for two beds at opposite ends of the rectangle that are wheeled in and out as required and a few chairs being placed on the stage for some scenes and removed by the actors when they walk off. This is what I mean by a pared down version. 

Angels in America, Parts One and Two is a complex play with numerous characters and frequent scene changing. It is done on an almost bare stage and it requires close attention to keep up with the people and events. But it is theatre of high quality and That Theatre Company and Buddies in Bad Times Theatre deserve a standing ovation for the production.

___________________________
Angels in America: Part One: Millennium Approaches and Part Two: Perestroika by Tony Kushner continue until December 17, 2023, at the Buddies in Bad Times Theatre,  12 Alexander Street, Toronto, Ontario.  www.buddiesinbadtimes.com

James Karas is the Senior Editor, Culture of The Greek Press 

CHRIS, MRS. – REVIEW OF NEW HOLIDAY MUSICAL AT THE WINTER GARDEN THEATRE

Reviewed by James Karas

If you are wondering about the title of the musical simply pronounce the two words and you should get Christmases. Chris, Mrs. is indeed a new musical unabashedly about Christmas and thoroughly enjoyable.

Its music, book and lyrics are by Matthew Stodolak and Katie Kerr. Stodolak is also the musical director and Katie Kerr directs the musical. They are a bright, young couple with experience in regional theatres and the ambition, talent and ability to write Chris, Mrs. and produce it at The Winter Garden Theatre in Toronto. That alone entitles them to a standing ovation. 

The musical takes place around Christmas, in fact much of it takes place on Christmas Eve. It is a  love story that has a few bumps to keep us entertained for over two hours with some wonderful songs, outstanding dancing and humour. The stars are Ben Chris (Liam Tobin) and Holly Carmichael (Danielle Wade) with Olivia Sinclair-Brisbane (Vicki Vandrelle) and AJ Bridel (Claire Chris) and a couple rambunctious children, Samantha  (played by Addison Wagman alternating with Finn Cofell) and Samuel (played by Lucien Duncan-Reid  alternating with Isaac Grates Myers). They are hilarious.

There are some seventeen actors and some of them dance up a storm and we have more than a dozen musical numbers from solos to ensembles. I will not disclose the plot because this is a new show and it will hold your attention more effectively if you see it firsthand.

Liam Tobin, Olivia Sinclair-Brisbane and ensemble.

Photo Max Power Photography

We need conflict and it comes when Ben Chris wants to sell the family lodge that is run by his brother Charlie Chris (Kale Penny). Ben goes to the lodge with his twins Samantha and Samuel, his teenage daughter Claire and his hoity-toity girlfriend Vicki. Will Ben convince Charlie to sell the lodge?

And those rocket-fueled children write to Santa, Nick in the play (Mark Weatherly), and he gives them holly which is the right gift if you write it with a capital H. You will have to untangle the rest for yourself in a romantic, family-friendly comedy that is perfect for the season.  

The songs are  melodic, romantic, comic and entertaining. We start with “Just Another Jingle,” go to the children’s “Dear Santa” to “All I Want  for Christmas” to “Vicki’s Lament.” There is a healthy offering of solos and ensemble pieces to fill up the evening.

Sarah Vance provides the superb choreography and Cory Sincennes designed the sets emphasizing the colour blue and costumes that are just what you want in a Christmas show.

I had a problem with some of the actors’ enunciation but the singing and the display of rhythm and athleticism of the dancing  was second to none.

Where I sat near the front, left I felt that the musicians should have been playing at reduced volume at times to allow the singers to be heard more clearly but my seat may have been too close to the band to merit this observation that may not apply to the rest of the audience.

The performers deserve praise and credit and I should mention that most of them are highly experienced. Chris, Mrs. is a youthful show but it is done on a highly professional level. Just go see it.

______________________

Chris, Mrs. - A New Holiday Musical by Matthew Stodolak and Katie Kerr, produced by Boldly Productions,  continues until December 30, 2023,  at The Winter Garden Theatre, 189 Yonge St. Toronto. www.chrismrs.com

James Karas is the Senior Editor, Culture of The Greek Press 

HERE LIES HENRY – REVIEW OF DANIEL MacIVOR’S PLAY AT FACTORY THEATRE

Reviewed James Karas

Here Lies Henry is a one-actor play that covers a wide range of matters. At 80-minutes it looks like murder for the actor but Damien Atkins performs it like the seasoned professional that he is. His character Henry goes  from an awkward beginning to a boisterous middle and wordy end, enough to test the mettle of any actor. Atkins performs with aplomb and no sign of fatigue or faltering. Kudos for his performance.

I am not sure I would give the same high marks to the play. If there is a structure to what Henry, the character in the play is addressing, it was not apparent and I must admit that I found myself mentally wandering away from what was happening on the stage.

Atkins as Henry enters barefoot wearing a black suit, black tie and a white shirt. The stage is dark except for a column of bright light behind him. He speaks haltingly almost as if he has a speech impediment and stays on the same spot for some time. Henry tries to ingratiate himself with the audience by telling a couple of jokes  and relates some incidents badly and incoherently. He hits the spot only when he tells us about going to a symposium of vegetarians where there was an all-you-can-eat salad bar. The punch line is that no wonder vegetarians don’t eat pigs, they are pigs. A good line that got a big laugh but it was one of the few.

Henry gives us some personal information, quotes Nietzsche and continues talking haltingly about lying and his parents. He describes at some length the types of lies that there are, the stages of growing up and gives a funny recapitulation of Genesis and the curt observation that Eve was created from a rib. Do you want fries with that rib?     

Damien Atkins in Here Lies Henry. Photo: Dahlia Katz

His speech becomes assured, he does some dance steps, gets closer to the audience and engages members including getting a cigarette and a lighter from one attendee. His engaging the audience may not have been very successful because of the small number of people in the audience.  I did not count them but there could not have been many more than thirty people in attendance. That can be murder for the actor that tries to develop a rapport with them. Atkins kept soldiering on, to his credit.

Henry talks about himself and his parents again and the prose gets weaker and one’s attention span shorter. Heny tries to tell us about love but he gets repetitive, uncertain, faltering, uninteresting.

Henry seems to have run out of steam and he tells us that he became a commercial pilot but could not fly because he was too tall. And something about Noah’s Ark. More about his parents and about himself as a liar and so it ends. 

There are some flashes of lights and some thunderclaps and Henry does move around in the latter half of the monologue. The stage is empty except for a chair that Henry brings to the stage from the front of the theatre but unfortunately, I could not find enough salad to make a pig of myself or, not being a vegetarian, enough meat to satiate my theatrical hunger.

Director Tawiah M’Carthy does a good job directing but, in the end, there may have been only so much that he could do with the script.
______________________________
Here Lies Henry by Daniel MacIvor directed by  Tawiah M’Carthy continues until December 17, 2023, at the Factory Theatre, 125 Bathurst Street, Toronto, Ontario. www.factorytheatre.ca/

THE LEHMAN TRILOGY – REVIEW OF CANADIAN STAGE PRODUCTION

Reviewed by James Karas 

The Lehman Trilogy is an epic play about the rise of the Lehman family from German immigrants to the United Sates to the billionaires and owners of Lehman Brothers, a  conglomerate of businesses that descended into the largest bankruptcy in American history.

The play takes us from 1844 when Henry Lehman, “a circumcised Jew with only one piece of luggage” arrived at the port of New York. After a tough and highly educational crossing of the Atlantic, he comes face to face with America that he sees as a magical music box. It is the story and vision of many immigrants.

He goes to Montgomery, Alabama where he works hard in a clothing store and saves his money. He opens his own store. His brother Emmanuel arrives and then Mayer, the third and last brother, follows him. They expand their business and the sign LEHMAN BROTHERS in gold letters is prominently displayed. They are on their way up.  

The Lehman Trilogy is based on Stefano Massini’s writing as adapted by Ben Power. It has only three actors, Ben Carlson as Henry Lehman, Graeme Somerville as Emmanual and Jordan Pettle as Mayer. They take on many roles but essentially remain the original three brothers and their progeny and some other characters until the 21^st century.  

The play is written in verse and it is an epic in the Homeric sense where a bard tells a heroic story to an audience, in this case us. Each brother speaks his own lines but also describes other events in the history of the three brothers and the company. After a fire destroys their store in Alabama, they go into the sale of equipment to cotton plantation owners and are paid in cotton. They sell the cotton to the mills and make a handsome profit. 

Ben Carlson, Jordan Pettle and Graeme Somerville in

‘The Lehman Trilogy’, Photo by Dahlia Katz

The play is episodic and we move on to 1855 when Henry dies but he remains in the play and continues to address the audience and speak for other characters.

Lehman Brothers expands and diversifies They conquer New York and survive the great depression and they establish businesses around the world. The last Lehman in an executive position is Bobby who dies in 1969. The final scene of the trilogy is an imaginary dream play. What starts as a Homeric epic ends as a Greek tragedy. Hubris takes over and pushes sound thinking to the side. They speak of immortality, of taking over the world. Much of the discussion uses Wall Street language and what was a story of three brothers doing well gets muddled with ambition, greed, corporate wars and money, lots of money.

There is a surreal scene where Bobby Lehman dances the twist and everyone is dancing. The Russians, the Chinese, CEOs Dick Fuld, “the Gorilla,” and Lew Glucksman dance as does Bobby to age 120. He died in 1969. It is a confusing scene that may make poetic sense.

The play ends on an elegiac note recalling the past and the big changes with Pete Peterson taking over and being pushed out by Dick Fuld and becoming a billionaire in the processes. They recall the three brothers opening a store in Alabama, surviving fire and flood and standing together dreaming of America.

The Lehman Trilogy is a hugely successful play and a  hit wherever it has been produced. It has won praise and awards galore. But I cannot share in all the enthusiasm it has generated. It is a three-act play that runs for 3 hours and 20 minutes with two intermissions. A three-act play does not become a trilogy because it covers to a greater or lesser extent the period of 1844 to 2008. The Lehman Trilogy seems like the story of the Lehman family, especially the founding three brothers who are the main characters of the play. But the heirs of the founders ceased having any control in the company in 1969 and  therefore had nothing to do with the 2008 bankruptcy of the huge enterprise that bore the name Lehman.

The mammoth company called Lehman Brothers that engaged in fraud and caused immeasurable  harm to people in 2008 does not figure all that prominently in the play. It was a complex affair and the three Lehman brothers and their heirs that tell the story are not the right people to tell us about it. they had nothing to do with the company after 1969.

The bankruptcy of Lehman Brothers is the most important event in the company’s  but not the family’s history and it is skimmed over. It was caused by greed and fraud on an unimaginable scale. If you consider the fraud, skullduggery and devastating effect on investors, employees and ordinary people who had borrowed money on subprime mortgages and lost their houses, you will not find it in this play. The rise of the Lehman brothers may well be an epic story worth telling but surely the devastating effect on the people who suffered from its bankruptcy is at least as important. 

Ben Carlson, Graeme Somerville and Jordan Pettle are outstanding actors who give stunning performances. They speak directly to the audience, speak to each other and represent other characters with finesse and inherent talent.

Camellia Koo’s set does little to indicate the changes in locations from the New York dock to Alabama to New York over well over a century.

The Lehman Trilogy is indeed an epic story, especially in presenting the Lehman family but it falls short in dealing with the tragic end of their success after they left the company.
____________________________
The Lehman Trilogy by Stafano Massini, adapted by Ben Power in a production by Canadian Stage continues  until December 2, 2023, at the Bluma Appel Theatre, St. Lawrence Centre for the Arts, 27 Front Street East, Toronto, Ontario. www.canadianstage.com

BRIGADOON - REVIEW OF 2023 SHAW FESTIVAL PRODUCTION

Reviewed by James Karas

The second offering of the Shaw Festival’s current Holiday Season is Brigadoon, that wonderful musical cum fairy  tale by Alan Jay Lerner and Frederick Loewe that takes us to the Scottish highlands of our imagination and to New York City in 1946. We visit a beautiful and magical village in never-never land that is full of beauty, innocence and love. It is gorgeous.

This is a revival of the Shaw Festival’s 2019 production and it has lost none of its appeal. It uses the revised book by Brian Hill and the music, songs, humour and gorgeous sets take us to a world that exists only in the theatre and the imagination.

Brigadoon is a village that is not on the map and it appears only once every one hundred years. It appeared again in 1946 which happens to be the date when two Americans fall into it. Tommy Albright (Stewart Adam McKensy) is about to get married in New York and he has been sent with his friend Jeff Douglas (Kevin McLachlan) to Scotland on a hunting trip. The two get lost and find a picturesque village that is not on the map. It is Brigadoon.

The village is bustling with activity and the two Americans meet the colourful local people. The bonny lass Fiona and Tommy are attracted to each other and they fall in love. Jeff is pursued by Meg (Kristi Frank) a lusty lass who is rather generous with her gifts to men. Jean MacLaren (Madelyn Kriese) is getting married to Charlie (David Andrew Reid) but they are not allowed to see each other until after the wedding. Harry (Travis Seeto) is in love with Jean and bitter that she rejects him. He will come to a bad end when he tries to interfere with the happy nuptials.

David Andrew Reid as Charlie Dalrymple with the 

cast of Brigadoon. Photo by David Cooper.

The two friends return to New York and the crucial question becomes: will Tommy reject Jane (Deborah Castrilli), his American fiancée who is waiting for the wedding the next day and return to Brigadoon to find Fiona?

We have a long way to go before someone must make that decision. The delightful story of two American veterans in a magical land has some beautiful songs and spectacular dances choreographed for the original production by the inimitable Agnes DeMille and for this production by Linda Garneau. The people of Brigadoon make a great ensemble for the choral pieces, Fiona sings the beautiful and  romantic “Waiting for my Dearie” while Meg delivers the lusty “The Love of my Life” and admits that she gave many men her heart and a few other things and offers the same to Jeff.

Charlie can’t wait for the marriage to be done with and begs Jean to “Come to me, Bend to Me” and all he wants is a kiss. Meg tells the hilarious story of “My Mother’s Wedding Day” where a huge crowd got roaring drunk, her father the drunkest, until the preacher finally performed the ceremony. Meg was there, she tells us.

Stewart Adam McKensy and Alexis Gordon in

 Brigadoon (Shaw Festival, 2023). Photo by David Cooper.

Tommy and Fiona strike a different tune and sing of “Almost Like Being in Love.” The above are a few examples of the melodies composed by Loewe and Lerner’s splendid lyrics.

The set designed by Pam Johnson is surpassingly beautiful from the opening of the curtains to the end. A village with old houses in a wooded valley with mountains in the back. The people are dressed in traditional Scottish clothes designed by Sue LePage and the impression is that of a paradise.

We do see short video projections of troops and war. The two men are veterans of World War II and their sudden discovery of Brigadoon is a long way from their recent reality. We get a glimpse of Tommy’s wedding rehearsal party and the beautiful would-be bride Jane  but he cannot get Fiona out of his mind.

The dancing was of very high quality, the singing had some weaknesses and the ability to do Scottish accents was minimal. But the musical and the production are indomitable. A visit to a magical land is always welcome but a place like Brigadoon at this time of the year is especially welcome and wonderful. A deep bow to Glynis Leyshon for her superb directing and handling of the acting, singing and pacing of a great show.  
__________________________
Brigadoon by Alan Jay Lerner (book and lyrics) and Frederick Loewe (music) continues until December 23, 2023, at the Festival Theatre, 10 Queen’s Parade, Niagara-on-the-Lake, Ontario. www.shawfest.com.

James Karas is the Senior Editor, Culture of The Greek Press

PROPHECY FOG - REVIEW OF COAL MINE THEATRE PRODUCTION

Reviewed by James Karas

Before you enter the playing area of the Coal Mine Theatre, you are asked to take your shoes off. In the theatre, you see a slender woman in white slacks and blouse with blonde/grey hair covering most of her face. She appears to be in a trance as she expands her arms and moves slowly. The playing area is a circle with a couple of dozens of bowls full of stones from pebbles to fist-sized and a round red rug in the centre. The audience of about 60 sit in a circle around the playing area.

The woman crouches down and her face touches the floor as she starts wailing. She stands up and starts telling us stories.

The woman in the centre is Jani Lauzon who has created and is the sole performer of Prophecy Fog, stories about native beliefs, their relationship with nature and her    personal experiences. There is a large screen above the playing area that shows images of the sky, a desert, the Giant Rock in the Mojave Desert as well as videos of the author and her daughter. 

Jani Lauzon in Prophecy Fog. Photo: Dahlia Katz

The fabled Giant Rock is a central image in Prophecy Fog and Lauzon tells us about Frank Critzer who dug out a home near the rock and lived there and about George van Tassel who lived there as well. The Giant Rock fractured in two and has suffered the indignity of graffiti and Lauzon shows us the swastikas, obscenities and white supremacist garbage scrawled on it.

Lauzon treats the rocks as if they are living objects. If you listen to them, they will speak to you or you will be able to communicate with them. She tells us stories of elders from whom she heard stories about our relations with nature. She slowly empties all the bowls in the playing area and she chooses pebbles and larger stones and holds them up lovingly and puts them on her body.

Lauzon is an outstanding storyteller and she tells us about her background of being raised in a foster home until she graduated from high school, about going to the Mojave Desert with her daughter and about her love of and close relationship with nature, something that we seem to have lost but one day may rediscover.

                                    Jani Lauzon in Prophecy Fog. Photo: Dahlia Katz

Prophecy Fog is an amazing creation of movement, music and storytelling that I understood only partially because I admit shamefacedly, I lack a sufficient background in indigenous mythology and culture.

On her website Jani Lauzon is described as Writer/Actor/Director/Musician/Puppeteer and a multidisciplinary artist of Métis/French/Finnish ancestry. Gee, is that all?

The production is directed by Franco Boni with Environmental Design by Melissa Joakim. They are responsible for the quality of the sets and performance, of course. It lasts 75 minutes with no intermission. It is an astounding show and an extraordinary performance.
_________________
Prophecy Fog by Jani Lauzon in a production by Paper Canoe Projects continues until December 10, 2023, at the Coal Mine Theatre, 2076 Danforth Ave. Toronto, (northwest corner of Woodbine and Danforth)  www.coalminetheatre.com or www.papercanoeprojects.com

 James Karas is the Senior Editor, Culture of The Greek Press