Out of Africa

>> Djanet Sears' 12-year-old Afrika Solo feels dated now

by AMY BARRATT

Afrika Solo, by Toronto-based playwright Djanet Sears, premiered in that city in '89, starring the author. It has taken it all this time to get to Montreal, in a new production courtesy of Black Theatre Workshop. Unfortunately, what might have seemed a revelation in the late '80s, now seems dated.

The one-woman show focuses on a character named Janet Sears (she will rename herself later after the African town of Djanet, meaning "paradise"). She goes to Africa in the early '80s, in her early twenties, to look for her roots. Though Sears was present for the opening night performance, she has entrusted the role for this production to another Toronto actor-singer-playwright, Anne-Marie Woods. The play has a "present" setting of a Benin airport where Djanet is waiting for the plane that will take her back to Canada. From there, we see flashbacks to her year of travels in Africa and back into her British childhood and Saskatchewan adolescence.

The issues this play addresses, like being the only black kid in your class, and wondering where you come from/belong, are issues that will resonate with BTW's audience base. But many will also feel that they've seen it all before. Afrika Solo bears some resemblance to Boogie Marshall's Stockholm(e), which BTW brought from (where else?) Toronto last spring. There's also a strong similarity to Stay Black and Die, a Fringe show in '98 that was remounted at Centaur that fall. Mind you, both of those shows were written after Afrika Solo, so they should correctly be called derivative of it, but the point is we can't experience this piece in 2001 as if it were still the 1980s.

It should be mentioned that, once you've listed Stay Black and Die and Stockholm(e), you've covered a big chunk of the theatre with black characters and content that we've seen on Montreal stages in the past four years (not meaning to ignore the efforts of former BTW artistic director Kate Bligh). But surely the fact that there isn't much representation is all the more reason for BTW to look for material that is radically different from what they've done before.

Afrika Solo is too comfortable and too sincere. Back when the play opened at Factory Theatre in Toronto, Sears told Now magazine that "the character in the play is part of Djanet Sears at 25, not who she is now. I can look back on her as another person." It's too bad that none of that self-awareness, no little glimmer of irony, has crept into Woods' performance. It's safe to say that this actress isn't 25 either, so why can't she play the 25-year-old Djanet more like she does the 7-year-old Janet, with affection, but distance?

It is telling that, early on in its career, Afrika Solo was done as a radio play for the CBC. Despite game efforts by Ruth Howard on set and costumes, and Sarah Blumel on lights, there is no compelling reason for keeping your eyes open for this performance. The rich musical element would have stood out to great effect on the radio.

Afrika Solo foreshadows the remainder of the BTW season in its emphasis on solo work and women. Still, there's reason to hope that what follows will be more innovative, and more edgy. I don't expect complacency from Naila Belvett, whose performance poetry piece Stuck, will be workshopped at Infinitheatre Nov. 29-Dec. 1.

Afrika Solo continues to Oct. 28 at the MAI, $10-15, 932-1104