Louis B Hobson reviews Lumber

In one day, Jack Bennet got dumped, fired, and evicted, and, worst of all, his beloved dog died. So with his truck and a chainsaw, he decides to leave Alberta and flee north — really far north — into the Yukon.

Metis actor and playwright Colin Wolf tells what happens when Jack hits the Yukon and how he finds new friends and new purpose for his life. Wolf becomes all the characters Jack meets, and these characters are so well delineated it seems as if there is always more than one person on stage.

In a particularly hilarious sequence, Wolf opens one of two boxes and puts on hand puppets to become the two women at the registry office where Jack goes to get a license to cut and harvest wood. The chronic smoker woman is a riot, as is the whole two bells system that calls the women to the same counter.

The chainsaw which Wolf/Jack handles becomes another character as well as the man who rents the cabins, and the young woman who becomes not only his companion but a guardian angel. We also get to meet Jack’s cousin who lives in British Columbia, and who Jack knows could be of great assistance to his new endeavor if only he can find a way to let him know how much he is needed.

Wolf is not just telling a story with Lumber but looking into the soul of this man who desperately wants to reinvent himself. There is also the tale of a cousin who went to the Yukon for the goldrush and was never heard from again. Jack has a revelation that is particularly poignant, and it is not the only time that Wolf almost brings his audience to tears.