One woman, five characters and a story that never gets old. The award-winning solo play blood.claat: one ooman story has finally found its way to Ottawa.
Since its creation in 2004, blood.claat has been seen on numerous Canadian stages, including a recent appearance at Vancouver’s Magnetic North Theatre Festival and productions in Montreal and Victoria, B.C. But the show’s creator and only actor, d’bi.young anitafrika, said each performance of blood.claat is a new and distinct experience.
“I love to invent new lines depending on what the vibes (are) in the house,” anitafrika said with a laugh. “But we try to keep the beginning and the end the same.”
Ottawa theatre-goers will see an updated version of the play, anitafrika said, as certain songs, dances and monologues are changed with every production in order to keep the play timely and engaging for each new audience.
anitafrika is a 32-year-old writer and performer who was born in Jamaica and migrated to Canada as a teenager. Now based in Toronto, she is recognized as one of Canada’s top performers of dub poetry, which is spoken word poetry performed over reggae rhythms. She is also known for her roles in several notable Canadian productions including Trey Anthony’s comedic play-turned-tv-show, Da Kink in my Hair, for which she received a Dora Mavor Moore theatre award nomination in 2006.
In blood.claat, anitafrika brings to life the character of Mudgu SanKofa, a 15-year-old girl growing up in Kingston, Jamaica. Her mother has migrated to Canada in search of a better life for both of them and has left Mudgu under the watchful eye of her grandmother. The play also features Mudgu’s religious aunt, her reggae-loving boyfriend and a mysterious machete-wielding stranger, all of whom are played by anitafrika.
"[blood.claat] is not autobiographical, but it's definitely grounded in biographical information,” she said.
For instance, anitafrika said Mudgu’s character bears certain similarities to her 15-year-old self and the other characters in the play are largely based on people from her life.
Like most of anitafrika’s self-produced work, blood.claat is part of a genre she likes to call “biomyth-monodrama,” the style she created by fusing together several story-telling techniques. It’s a genre made up of solo performances “where reality meets magic,” she said.
Throughout the play, the cycle of blood is used as a metaphor in relation to culture and the female bodily experience. anitafrika said the play’s title comes from the Jamaican Patois pronunciation of “blood cloth”— what women used during their period before pads. The term is also known as one of Jamaican culture’s strongest swears and derogatory terms. anitafrika said she wants to use the title to provoke audiences.
"All of the work that I do is based in this idea that the personal is political,” anitafrika said. “I feel that for those of us who call ourselves storytellers we have a responsibility to question what's been passed down to us as ‘unquestionable.’ ”
blood.claatis being produced by the Great Canadian Theatre Company and began its run Mar. 4 at the Irving Greenberg Theatre. Students can receive discounted Rush tickets with valid student ID.