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Saturday, October 14, 2017

October 14. Day 287. The Bear Necessities

Performers Nancy Denis and Candy Bowers
Nancy greets fans after the show
 It's an age-old tactic and often repeated literary device. If you have a difficult and possibly challenging story to tell use animals rather than humans to get your message across. It feels far less preachy to have humans dressed as bears use beats, poetry, hip hop and afropunk to deliver a sermon. Throw in outrageous wigs, too much pink, a slime gun and flouros and you'll have the audience eating up everything you are serving them including some pretty hard core concepts. There's a whole lot going on in One the Bear which we saw at La Boite tonight. ** At one level it's about a bear who became a pop star and forgot her bear origins and mates back in the woods. But it's a story about commodification, cultural appropriation, the taking and exploiting of lands from original inhabitants and the shallow notion of beauty and success. That's a lot to deliver in just over and hour while dressed in pink fur. It's funny, charming and very loud (both in terms of what you see and hear). Will the school groups who will flow through the doors of La Boite next week to see this co production love it? Do bears shit in the woods? The co-production between Campbelltown Arts Centre and Black Honey Company continues at La Boite until October 21.
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**My specialist's words were "have a quiet weekend". Sitting in a theatre seat is no more strenuous than sitting on the couch, right?
Candy B, one of the shows creators as well as a performer, enjoys a laugh after the show
Nancy Denis, Candy Bowers. Production image by Dylan Evans.

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