Children of God focuses on a group of children who were forced to attend residential schools in Canada. Featuring scenes from their childhood and adulthood, the journey was unflinching. I, for one, was not sure how a musical format would work with the difficult themes of residential schools. I was completely wrong in my uncertainty.
There is a power to song, to lifting voices together, from an open hearted lament to the joyful, unrestricted happiness that is simply too big to be contained by spoken words. To reclaim a language that was banned and called evil. To be in the room to witness, and to physically feel the reverberations, I do not say it lightly when I say I am honoured to have experienced this show.
One of the moments that was so critical to the piece was when the children were singing and dancing together at the end of act one. This small moment of joy (the children find moments of joy together throughout) is such an act of resistance. It is so important to remind us that even though the actors playing the children are adults, in real life, these children wanted joy and happiness as much as every child would have.
With two understudies filling in, including the lead, you might think this production may have been on shakey ground. Not so. This strong cast was able to deliver the emotional range of this show without missing a beat.
As much as it is a play about before, it is a play about now and asks us to remember the reverberations of these schools, the estimated 50,000 lives who did not make it home, the immense pain that came home with those who did, and the families who never got to know the truth.
The play deftly manages to effectively show the ways in which intergenerational trauma may manifest, the ways in which survivors were expected to move forwards from their experiences. But also, delved into the role that obedience and commitment to beliefs about these schools were adopted by also those running the schools.
The finale of this piece will stay with me for years. I do not over embellish when I state the importance and power of this show, and especially that moment. This is theatre at it’s finest. It is a must watch, and then a must-watch and reflect.
If you are in a city fortunate enough to catch this touring show, go see this show.
If you are in Victoria, you have one more chance to catch this show tonight.
Disclaimer: I received free tickets to the show as a result of other volunteer work I do. No review was expected or requested.
