The Power Plant

Los Angeles performance group My Barbarian explores the far reaches of entertainment through site-specific spectacles that play with our expectations of Broadway dance, musical theatre, improv comedy, and epic drama. For their residency at The Power Plant, they will present Gods of Canada, a part-nautical, part-musical pageant dedicated to the perception of Canada as the last refuge of the North American Left. As proposed in their artists’ statement:

"Conflating notions of spirituality with politics, My Barbarian's Gods of Canada uses inter-nationalist pageantry and shamanistic ritual to evoke the mystical gratitude we, as denizens of California, feel for the example and symbolic presence of our northern neighbour Canada (and Ontario specifically)."

Drawing on a variety of indigenous influences – Canadian superhero team Alpha Flight, Inuit drumming, a Quebecois astrologer – Gods of Canada will provide a skewed perspective on the ever-present differences highlighted in politics and the media when Canadian-U.S. relations are discussed.

The performance begins on a speedboat careening through the inner harbour. Toting flags that collage icons of Canadian and Californian patriotism, My Barbarian will land at Harbourfront Centre and parade to a stage at the southern entrance of The Power Plant. There they will perform a song cycle that pays tribute to universal health care, gay marriage, our lax drug policy and explores “the demoralized American liberal (specifically Californian) notion of citizenship as it relates to the mythologized example set by the democratic values of Canada.”

My Barbarian are artists in residence at The Drake Hotel in June and present Pagan Rights at the Underground (1150 Queen St. W.) on Sunday 26 June at 9 pm ($10).