by the Chocolate Woman Collective.
This performance took place at a Theatre off of St. George St. in
U.of T., oddly enough the Theatre and it’s address is not listed on the 12 page full color program.
That’s just the beginning of the challenges with this. Finding the place was difficult. Once you arrived there wasn’t any signage.
There was no one assigned to give directions.
I was with a friend with a walking disability. The elevator didn’t work to get us upstairs. Later when we wanted to come down they couldn’t find the key.
An abundant amount of money was spent on the 12 page program describing every detail of anyone even remotely involved in this production.
There was no storey of the production and what it was about. This collective of artists are senior native artists and all references in the play were to aboriginal matters.
Yet we were told nothing of this or of chocolate womans journey. It felt like they were trying to flaunt their aboriginal roots in our face yet tell us nothing of the story line or what any of their terms meant. There are references to Guna any many other aboriginal terms. None of which were explained in the short one act play nor explained on the programming. I came away wondering “What on Earth was that about”. At the end I had no clue about Chocolate Woman or her journey.