Awoowaakii

Postcard Review by Caroline Russell-King

Show – Awoowaakii

Playwright – Sable Sweetgrass

Production Company/Theatre space – Theatre Calgary at the Big Secret Theatre, Arts Commons.

Length – 2 ACTS (2 hours, 35 minutes, one intermission)

Genre/s – Comi-drama (with a little drag)

Premise – A mother shields her son from past family pain and present bullies who taunt him because he lives with his trans mom and his gay uncle (a drag queen who plans a naming ceremony) that ultimately helps unite a fractured family.

Why this play? Why now? – It’s set in Calgary! As Stafford Arima says, “it provides a voice we need in Canadian theatre”.

Curiosities – Could the audience on stage left see with those sightlines? Have I ever seen a TC show that was set in our city before? How do you get the rights to Gaga lyrics for a script? I wondered how denial and shielding interweave in parenthood.  

Notable Moment – Chrissy’s dream/nightmare.

Notable writing – This script was years in the making having received three workshops by Theatre Calgary. Three dramaturgs are noted as having worked with the playwright. The play opens with Toni’s drag number which warms up the audience and then goes into a 1970 sitcom with farcical elements where two characters are hidden in the pantry accompanied by “come out of the closet” jokes. When the script leaves these dated contrivances and morphs into the real heart of the complex relationships, it shines. The play bookends with another musical number where Lady Gaga’s Born this Way is mixed with ceremonial dance and is pure joy.

Notable performances – While Garet C. Smith pulls off some great OTT comedy and drag numbers; the show belongs to Marshall Vielle. Vielle playing Chrissy the matriarch dealing with betrayal, vulnerability, and reconciliation. They give a beautiful, honest, and nuanced performance.  

Notable design/Production – Set Designer John Duchet created a building that morphs into a tipi. I don’t know if we changed locations or if it was metaphorical; either way it was lovely. The practical use of having the set on a revolve mirrors the base of the tipi and other circle imagery in the play. Costume Designer John Chief gets full metaphor marks for draping Toni in a costume which works with the importance the character attributes to meat and the MTV dress.

Notable direction – Alanis King acknowledges that Elder in Residence Talenny Rose helped her as a two-spirit ceremonial leader and production elder for this world premiere. King’s direction of this “slice of life” play explores, as she says in her notes, “colonized histories of transphobia, homophobia and multi-generational trauma brought about by government policy that were not in our control, or even in a language we understood”.  

One reason to see this show – “Laughter is good medicine”.