Anung's First American Christmas
Phone: 773-327-5252
Price: $12-$25
vitalisttheatre.org
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Theatre Building Chicago
- Lakeview 1225 W. Belmont Ave.
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773-327-5252
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(based on 40 user reviews)
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The denouement of this painfully overlong 3 hr play occurs at the end when the Indian boy fulfills his "vision quest" by finding the Christ child in Bethlehem. The story has a few redeeming moments but the resolution is a perversion of Indian culture and of the journey that has gone before it. The efforts of a talented and enthusiastic cast are wasted.
The denouement of this painfully overlong 3 hr play occurs at the end when the Indian boy fulfills his "vision quest" by finding the Christ child in Bethlehem. The story has a few redeeming moments but the resolution is a perversion of Indian culture and of the journey that has gone before it. The efforts of a talented and enthusiastic cast are wasted.
Refreshing look at the Christmas story told from the perspective of a 12 year old Ojibway Indian boy. The cast...excellent! Stage and scenery were well done and engaging. I thoroughly enjoyed the experience. Pay attention to the dialogue...quick and clever literary references, "tongue-in-cheek" political references and childhood songs and sayings or you might miss them. Particularly good: actress who plays Anung, the Grandmother and Grandfather and the turtle. Almost forgot...puppetry...very cool!
I thought this was entertaining and fun. A good way to kick off the "Holiday" season...
While I’m reluctant at this juncture to enter a lengthy discussion of the aesthetic merits of “Anung’s First American Christmas” (apart from pointing out that written audience responses to the first two performances have been highly positive and wildly enthusiastic), I do feel it is necessary to correct two factual errors contained in comments by Maxine and Gilda (above). First, the running time of the play is precisely 2 hours and 33 minutes, not 3 hours as some persist in saying. Second (as the Program Notes make clear), the origin of this play, including the Bethlehem dimension, lies with the Ojibway themselves, both in legend and story, and as most recently conveyed by former Tribal Council Chief Steve Fobisher (Baminowekapo) of the Keewatin Ojibway, Grassy Narrows First Nation, Canada. Moreover, the entire project, from first to last, was supported by the Museum of Ojibway Culture, St Ignace, MI. Further, the play itself has received the wholehearted endorsement of Board Members from the Mitchell Museum of the American Indian, Evanston, IL. In other words, it is the Ojibway People themselves, I believe, who are in the best position to determine what promotes and what perverts aspect of their culture. Thus, Vitalist Theatre Company is extremely grateful to have received Ojibway input, consultation, cooperation, and support in bringing this play to Chicago audiences. Indeed, a portion of profits from the production have been pledged to the Keewatin Ojibway for their recovery efforts from mercury poisoning in the aftermath of industrial abuse. Finally, may I point out that the “Anung” script is detailed, explicit, and exhaustive in its efforts to convey numerous ways in which aspects of traditional Christian culture are absorbed into the world view and spiritual traditions of the Ojibway (the Seers, the song, the drumming, the cradleboard, the Swan, to mention a few)—rather than the reverse, as suggested by Maxine and Gilda.
Robin
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