zahgidiwin/love
Shawna Dempsey | CBC News | Posted: July 14, 2016 11:20 PM | Last Updated: July 15, 2016
FOUR STARS | 'This show is like a really good acid trip that suggests post-apocalyptic hope is possible'
Rating: ★★★★
Company: Happy Sunflower Sunshine Hour, Winnipeg
Genre: Play — Comedy
Venue: 4 — Onstage at Pantages
Holy feminist fireworks! Blazing birth of post-colonial nebula!
Rock 'n' roll, residential schools, flood myths and futurism are mashed together in this exciting new play by Frances Koncan, brash and fearlessly creative.
What did I love best? Bible verses woven with the lyrics of Bowie and Meatloaf? Stutters of privilege choking on "please" and "sorry"? Death by drowning to man-splainers?
This show is like a really good acid trip that suggests post-apocalyptic hope is possible. - Shawna Dempsey
Gender bender casting keeps the vitriol focused: abuse of power is what is at issue here. Actor Kelsey Wavey's character, at turns the teenage inmate of a residential school and the rebellious daughter of an evil queen, powerfully grounds the kaleidoscope.
This show is like a really good acid trip that suggests post-apocalyptic hope is possible: maybe humanity can save itself. If so, we'll all stand proud in our satin slips and smeared makeup. If so, like zahgidiwin/love, it'll be a hell of a ride.