Recommended Age, Grade, and Reading Levels
- Age: 15
- Grade: 10
Description
A drunken Anglican minister who has failed to convert anyone in ten years, an avaricious saloon keeper with a murder in her past, a pregnant child star who has become too old for her roles and a man who claims to be the last of the Mohicans all need a new lease on life. They intercept a contract meant for a San Diego theatre company, form a bedraggled troupe of players and head north, through the wilds of the Cariboo gold rush to perform a Christmas Pageant for the Theatre Royal in Barkerville, BC.
On their way, they rehearse a hilarious pastiche of Hamlet, The Last of the Mohicans, A Christmas Carol and The Gospel of Luke, gradually finding a way to legitimize their only true talents as “professional liars.” Cariboo Magi is an unabashed celebration of the power of theatre to renew our lives and banish our cares.
About the author
Lucia Frangione
Award-winning playwright and actress Lucia Frangione is the recipient of the 2006 and 1998 Gordon Armstrong Playwright Awards and won the Sydney Risk playwright award for Cariboo Magi in 2001. Espresso was nominated for seven Jessie awards, toured Western Canada in 2004 and was translated into Polish and performed for a year at Teatr Jeleniogorski in 2007. Frangione has performed in her own plays to much acclaim, notably earning Jessie Richardson Award nominations for her leading performances in Holy Mo and Espresso as well as winning the CAEA Stage West National Acting Award in 2003.
Awards
- Winner, Jessie Richardson Award for Outstanding Original Play or Musical: Small Theatre (Pacific Theatre)
Librarian Reviews
Cariboo Magi
Mix one hot-tempered, very pregnant, twenty-two-year-old kinder-actress; one drunken and failed Anglican priest with aspirations of playing Hamlet; one avaricious Parisian saloon owner guilty of killing her husband with a shovel; and one racially indeterminate gold panning aspiring Canadian poet and you have the ridiculous but very funny play, Cariboo Magi. Initially set in San Diego, the story moves to the wilds of Cariboo-gold-rush British Columbia and ends in a playhouse in Barkerville. While the audience would benefit from some knowledge of Hamlet, The Last of the Mohicans, A Christmas Carol and the Gospel according to Luke, none of this is necessary to enjoy the foolish antics of the characters.Caution: some racial slurs
Source: The Association of Book Publishers of BC. BC Books for BC Schools. 2006-2007.
