By Megan Mooney

Cross posted with blogTO

I’m not entirely sure what John and I expected when we went to An Evening with Uncle Val at Theatre Passe Muraille last night, but it wasn’t what we got.  We were expecting straight up comedy, maybe even sketch comedy (as much as you can get in a one-person show).  But this was more.  Don’t get me wrong, it was very funny, but it was also, I don’t know…  illuminating?

As John said to me after the show, it does an amazing job of evoking a sense of place.  Uncle Val comes from a Newfoundland outport, but is now living with his daughter and son-in-law in the suburbs of St. John’s – and you really can kind of feel the suburbs while you’re watching.

I was introduced to a few Newfoundland traditions, learning things about other parts of the country is always really interesting to me.  One tradition that really caught my ear was the Newfoundland recitation tradition.  I also hadn’t thought how Newfoundland joining confederation would affect the culture and even day-to-day life of the province.  I forgot how recent it was, sometimes I think I lose sight of the things that happened before I was born.  But since they joined confederation in 1949 there are still plenty of people alive and well who were born in the independent Dominion of Newfoundland, not Newfoundland the province.

Continue reading An Evening With Uncle Val – Theatre Passe Muraille →

By Megan Mooney

Okay.  First, a confession.  For some reason I have found this a very difficult article to write.  I saw AGOKWE ages ago, and have been turning the show over and over in my head since then.  The main problem is that I can’t actually figure out what I think of the show. 

Here’s what I do know…  I am glad I saw the show.  There are some stunning moments in this show.  And, this can’t have been an easy show to write and perform for Waawaate Fobister, in fact, the whole thing felt pretty brave.

Why brave?  Well, I wondered out loud to Lisa, who accompanied me to the show, whether this would be harder to do in front of a First Nations audience, or a non-First Nations audience (which, in the Toronto theatre scene usually translates to white).  But Fobister did this in Toronto, so it will be in front of both, since I seem to remember being told that Toronto has the highest population of First Nations people in Canada.

Continue reading AGOKWE – Buddies in Bad Times →