A SIDE OF DREAMS by Jani Lauzon (Paper Canoe Projects). At Aki Studio Theatre, Daniels Spectrum (585 Dundas East). Runs to February 1, Tuesday-Saturday 8 pm, matinee Sunday 2 pm. $10-$25. 416-531-1402, boxoffice@nativeearth.ca. Rating: NNN
Sometimes you have to go back to the past to create a positive future.
In Jani Lauzons A Side Of Dreams, a troubled Metis mother and daughter, Haisa (Lauzon) and Aina (Jessica Barrera), are whisked away to a world of multi-generational memory and age-old enchantment to heal their lives. Haisas husband has been killed and shes gone mute, unable to communicate with the angry, isolated Aina, who wants her mother back.
With the help of the mythical, protective spirit Spider Woman (Trish Leeper), Haisa travels to a mist-filled realm where aboriginal history comes to life, complete with dragons and giants. Haisa appears as a puppet in this land of subconscious reality, a parallel plane where she learns lessons about her heritage.
One of the shows high points is a musical episode that resurrects Haisas own mother, Katherine, and also magically includes Aina, who discovers the importance of her ancestral line.
The sometimes whimsical show, which will appeal to young audiences as well as grown-ups, makes good use of Leepers puppetry and mask-making skills and a score composed by Marcia Coffey with Lauzon. Other pluses are Melissa Joakims lighting and projections, which emphasize the threads of Spider Womans web and the circle of life, represented by the dreamcatcher.
Much of the show rests on Lauzons shoulders, and she brings charm to the telling. Over the course of the hour-long production she portrays a wide range of characters, including the mute Haisa, her ebullient mother, Katherine (who makes a mean apple pie and loves to dance), a mythical serpent and a towering guy in a yellow slicker. Expressive in face and body, she takes the audience on a journey that begins in a cheerless, prosaic world but ends, after an exploration of ancestral memories both sad and joyful, in freedom and flight.
