Another Africa

Reviewed by Paula Citron
October 12, 2011

Another Africa
CanadianStage/Volcano Theatre
Prologue (written by Deborah Asiimwe, directed by Wayne Magnesia)
Shine Your Eye (written by Binyavanga Wainaina, directed by Ross Manson)
Performed by Gbene Beka, Muio Nene, Awaovieyi Agie, Lucky Onyekachi Ejim, Milton Barnes, Ordena Stephens-Thompson and Araya Mengesha
Peggy Pickit Sees the Face of God (written by Roland Schimmelpfennig, directed by Liesl Tommy)
Performed by Maev Beaty, Tom Barnett, Tony Nappo and Kristen Thomson
Bluma Appel Theatre
Sept. 26 to Oct. 22, 2011

Volcano Theatre’s The Africa Trilogy was part of Luminato 2010. Now under the title of Another Africa, the evening consists of two plays and a short prologue. The playwrights and directors represent five countries and three continents.

The point of intersection is the relationship between Africa and the white world, with a focus on the young.

The choral prologue, performed by the whole company, talks about familiarity and otherness.

Shine Your Eye, is set in a Lagos office that launches internet scams. A young woman computer programmer, the daughter of an assassinated political hero, is caught between two worlds.

Peggy Pickit Sees the Face of God, set in an unnamed western city, focuses on a reunion between two doctors who went to Africa, and their friends, a doctor and a nurse, who stayed home. The latter helped support an African orphan.

With Another Africa, CanStage continues its commitment to provocative theatre.

Another Africa continues at the Bluma Appel Theatre until Oct. 22.