{"id":95992,"date":"2023-04-27T13:32:15","date_gmt":"2023-04-27T17:32:15","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.ludwig-van.com\/toronto\/?p=95992"},"modified":"2023-04-27T13:32:15","modified_gmt":"2023-04-27T17:32:15","slug":"scrutiny-polished-impressive-maanomaa-brother-despite-plot-holes","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.ludwig-van.com\/toronto\/2023\/04\/27\/scrutiny-polished-impressive-maanomaa-brother-despite-plot-holes\/","title":{"rendered":"SCRUTINY | Polished, Impressive Maanomaa, My Brother \u2013 Despite Plot Holes"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"Canadian
Canadian Stage & Blue Bird Theatre Collective\/ Maanomaa, My Brother (Photo courtesy of CanStage)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Canadian Stage & Blue Bird Theatre Collective\/ Maanomaa, My Brother, written and performed by Tawiah M\u2019Carthy and Brad Cook, co-created with Anne-Marie Donovan, directed by Philip Akin, Berkeley Street Theatre Upstairs, Apr. 11 to Apr. 30. Tickets here<\/a>.<\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n

If there is a better acted and directed play this season, it would be hard to find. Writers\/performers Tawiah M\u2019Carthy 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.<\/p>\n

Kwame (M\u2019Carthy), an African boy, and Will (Cook), a white boy, were inseparable childhood friends in Ghana. Then a terrible thing happened, and Kwame\u2019s father was killed, for which he blames Will\u2019s father. This led to an estrangement that lasted decades, until the two meet again at the funeral of Kwame\u2019s grandfather.<\/p>\n

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.<\/p>\n

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\u2019s character-specific costumes and Andr\u00e9 du Toit\u2019s pin-spot lighting both help to create the illusion of both their Ghanaian boyhood and the present time.<\/p>\n

Why is Will\u2019s 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\u2019s father? In the play it\u2019s presented as almost an afterthought. It certainly needs fleshing out.<\/p>\n

Nonetheless, this play absolutely deserves to be seen.<\/p>\n

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If there is a better acted and directed play this season than director Philip Akin’s Maanomaa, My Brother, it would be hard to find.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":73,"featured_media":95993,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"om_disable_all_campaigns":false,"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[40430,52,62,63],"tags":[40599,631,21496],"yst_prominent_words":[22923],"acf":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/www.ludwig-van.com\/toronto\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/2\/2023\/04\/Maanomaa-My-Brother-Canadian-Stage-REVIEW.jpg","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p9bakr-oYg","amp_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ludwig-van.com\/toronto\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/95992"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ludwig-van.com\/toronto\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ludwig-van.com\/toronto\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ludwig-van.com\/toronto\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/73"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ludwig-van.com\/toronto\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=95992"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.ludwig-van.com\/toronto\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/95992\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":95994,"href":"https:\/\/www.ludwig-van.com\/toronto\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/95992\/revisions\/95994"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ludwig-van.com\/toronto\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/95993"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ludwig-van.com\/toronto\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=95992"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ludwig-van.com\/toronto\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=95992"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ludwig-van.com\/toronto\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=95992"},{"taxonomy":"yst_prominent_words","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ludwig-van.com\/toronto\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/yst_prominent_words?post=95992"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}