Belfry Theatre
iPhoto caption: Photo by Dahlia Katz.
REVIEW: 1939 finds tremendous power in the things left unspoken
Jani Lauzon’s production, now playing at Canadian Stage, paints a sharp portrait of a fictional residential school, but uses wide swathes of negative space to its advantage.
iPhoto caption: Photo by Dahlia Katz.
In 1939, Indigenous students bring their living culture to one of the Bard’s problem plays
“There’s no monolithic experience of residential school,” says co-playwright and director Jani Lauzon. “There are some really extraordinary plays already written about residential schools that deal with that [more tragic] lens. We set out to write a different kind of play, with a different gaze.”
As if I'd been sucked through the phone and appeared on the other end of the line, I could see an abstraction of the house against a blue sky with its windows ablaze.