Arts & Culture

'Prophecy Fog', a one-person show written and performed by Jani Lauzon, is on at Gateway Theatre from March 9 to 18.

Photo by Dahlia Katz

'Prophecy Fog', a one-person show written and performed by Jani Lauzon, is on at Gateway Theatre from March 9 to 18.

Photo by Dahlia Katz

Gateway show immerses viewers

By Richmond Sentinel

Published 10:25 PST, Fri March 3, 2023

Last Updated: 3:37 PDT, Mon April 17, 2023

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Gateway Theatre’s new show Prophecy Fog will immerse viewers in a journey about relationships and sacred spaces.

Written and performed by award-winning Indigenous artist Jani Lauzon, the show was the product of a Toronto residency that encouraged creators to travel and experience other places to better understand themselves and others. For the first part of the residency, Lauzon visited Giant Rock in the Mojave Desert, something she had researched in high school.

“I had a question—if our sacred spaces are desecrated, do they still hold spiritual power? I knew the answer to the question in a way before I went, but I wanted to experience it for myself,” says Lauzon.

She adds that Giant Rock is significant in a number of ways—local Indigenous peoples used it as a gathering place, and it also functioned as a hub for UFO believers in the 1950s.

“I’m a single parent and took my daughter with me,” says Lauzon. “My director Franco Boni, along with my environmental designer Melissa Joakim, spent a lot of time in the studio weaving various stories together that all came out of my time with the rock, and also with my love of stones that I had since I was a kid.”

She describes the experience of the show as immersive and intimate, requiring a shift in the relationship between audience and performer. Audience members are seated on floor cushions or chairs set up in a circle.

“I’m in the centre of that circle with the stones, and I’m hoping people leave with a sense of breath and a different relationship with breathing,” says Lauzon. “The genre or the style of performance is based in storytelling, and I have a direct address to the audience so it’s a combination of storytelling, theatre, and ceremony.”

By the end of the show, the whole acting space is covered in stones functioning as Lauzon’s scene partners in the one-person show.

“Each one of (the) stones is based on a teaching that I received from an Elder in Ontario that stones are alive and that they are our story keepers,” she says.

The show poses questions, but does not answer them concretely. The aim is to leave audiences with questions to ponder, perhaps bringing about new ways of thinking.

“One of the most important themes to me is the passing down of knowledge from generation to generation,” says Lauzon. “My relationship with my daughter is something that is featured in the show a lot, I think because it’s been such an important part of my life—especially with how strong our relationship is, and as a single parent how wonderful that opportunity was for me.”

While Prophecy Fog is not a comedy, Lauzon says there are moments of joy and laughter, and she describes hearing people laugh as “one of the best things ever.” She adds that the process of working on this show was one of the hardest she’s ever gone through as a performer.

“I’ve had a really amazing career and an opportunity to be on a variety of stages—I started out as a street performer and actually did a lot of street performance in Vancouver when I was young,” she says. “I would say that, in some ways, this is closest to that. There’s a vulnerability when you bring your personal stories into the work, and I questioned whether I could make the story open and universal in a way to others so that it would resonate with folks.”

She credits her artistic team for helping guide her toward the opportunity—to a new way of looking at things and releasing the feeling that a performer should entertain as opposed to just being.

Lauzon, who is also a singer-songwriter and musician, says she always looks for ways to incorporate music into her theatre. This show incorporates musical elements including Lauzon’s traditional flute.

“I just love creating an atmosphere where I’m sharing with people my love and passion about stones and who I think they are in the world and why we should pay more attention to them,” says Lauzon.

“We’re offering an opportunity to experience theatre in a different form, an opportunity to be engaged in a theatrical environment that can feel wonderfully uncomfortable, and a gentle reminder that being in a circle together is a powerful thing.”

Prophecy Fog is on at Gateway from March 9 to 18. For more information or to buy tickets, visit gatewaytheatre.com/events/prophecy-fog/