Canadian Stage & Blue Bird Theatre Collective/ Maanomaa, My Brother, written and performed by Tawiah M’Carthy and Brad Cook, co-created with Anne-Marie Donovan, directed by Philip Akin, Berkeley Street Theatre Upstairs, Apr. 11 to Apr. 30. Tickets here.
If there is a better acted and directed play this season, it would be hard to find. Writers/performers Tawiah M’Carthy and Brad Cook, along with director Philip Akin, have pulled off a production that is slick, polished and all-round impressive. There is only one problem. The plot has quite a few holes, and the audience leaves the theatre musing over missing information.
Kwame (M’Carthy), an African boy, and Will (Cook), a white boy, were inseparable childhood friends in Ghana. Then a terrible thing happened, and Kwame’s father was killed, for which he blames Will’s father. This led to an estrangement that lasted decades, until the two meet again at the funeral of Kwame’s grandfather.
The play moves between the past and the present with dizzying speed, with the most wondrous acting being the two men as eight-year-old boys. Physical movement plays a large part as both men are almost dance-like in their character creations.
The actors, along with co-creator Anne-Marie Donovan, designed the elegant yet simple set, which is a raised wood platform centre stage. Using just minimal props, the actors transform that platform into a plethora of different places right before our eyes. Joanna Yu’s character-specific costumes and André du Toit’s pin-spot lighting both help to create the illusion of both their Ghanaian boyhood and the present time.
Why is Will’s family in Ghana? We think, maybe, missionaries? What about their lives post Ghana? Are they both in Canada, or only Kwame? Also, the role of religion seems to be treated a little haphazardly. And, what happened at the killing of Kwame’s father? In the play it’s presented as almost an afterthought. It certainly needs fleshing out.
Nonetheless, this play absolutely deserves to be seen.
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