Play adapted from children's story

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For anyone who loved to see a good play, there was a rare treat for them in Toronto last month.

The play, Caribou Song, which ran for five performances at the Isabel Bader Theatre, was part of Musicools, a festival of the arts and culture put on by several northern nations. It was the third time the Musicools event was held in Toronto. The festival which began April 29 and wrapped up May 11 explored northern musical theatre themes for families from Scandinavia, Finland, Iceland and Canada.

Created and produced by Red Sky Performance, the fast-moving, albeit brief, dance and mime piece was a wondrous rendition of Thomson Highway's children's book Caribou Song.

It went like this: Jo and Cody are a normal young brother and sister who live, learn and play together in their parent's home. The only difference between them and other kids is they live in Canada's Arctic, following the path of the caribou as the source of their food supply.

The two Cree children live happily north of the tree line, in a frozen land of practically perpetual winter where two of their greatest delights are catching snowflakes on their tongues and riding their husky-driven sled. One day, their parents decide to take Jo and Cody to a small island for a picnic.

Much to their delight, they see trees and grass, a novelty to them. After a delicious lunch of fish and bannock, cooked over an open fire by their parents, the two children run to the top of a small hill, ready for a new adventure-that is, until they hear the roar of thunder.

Before they can move, a herd of 2,000 caribou thunders towards them. They avoid the fire where the adults are sitting and trample straight over the children. Unafraid, the children miraculously emerge unscathed.

Sandra Laronde, an entertainer, writer and publisher from Teme-Augama-Anishnabe in Temagami, plays Jo. Carlos Rivera, a Mexican dancer and choreographer of Mixteco Native descent, plays Cody.

A heavy percussion background making appropriate animal, nature and human sounds creates a greater impression than a stage full of props and actors as the two-person cast cavorts and gyrates to the stirring narrative of Alanis Obomsawin, an Abenaki story-teller. Dressed in sweats and deerskin moccassins, Rivera is a sleek pony-tailed gymnast who improvs everything from a salivating sled-dog in harness to a snowflake-licking child.

Laronde, looking very little-girl-like in a red dress, deerskin moccasins and short braids, dances and mimes facial expressions in tandem with Rivera.

Before the start of the short play, Obomsawin told wonderful children's tales from Aboriginal folklore to the predominantly under-12 audience. The North Wind mating with a beautiful Native girl and producing a trickster child who can assume various life forms is one of the primary stories she told to eager young ears.

Laronde is the founder of Red Sky Performance, which creates and produces original contemporary Aboriginal works. Laronde is also the founder of Native Women in the Arts, an arts service organization for First Nations, Inuit and Metis women from all artistic disciplines.

Red Sky is currently creating another piece-How Raven Stole the Sun-to accompany Caribou Song and to lengthen the performance time. Milk International 2004, a children's theatre festival, is interested in including the two pieces in its line-up, Laronde said.