Kapital - as it celebrates each new day the Universal Zombie - is the best teacher. For this cannibalized society, continuously consuming itself, spewing out Thanatos, is a society where authenticity stands out (gothic image: the rainbow against cemeteries?) but, what to do with it?

It is not an artistic sensibility, a specific class, a particular ethnocultural background that makes this play work. Rather, a voice: a unique voice where the world of noise (exemplum: Kosovo) and fury (ex: Springer) reigns majestically. When - somehow - a voice speaks for all voices, first erased then oppressed: the poor, the immigrant, the displaced, the forgotten stories. Calogero (Charlie) Chiarelli, does just that with his one-man, two-act play Cu' Fu.

If it sounds like a celebration, then throw this review away; it is useless. If it sounds like something is happening read on. Because, the main problem is not that this play is successful, authentic and a recuperation of erased history(ies). The problem is, what to do with this play.

It is at first an intelligent, sharp rendition of alienation. Technology at the service of vegetative life. For the play begins and ends in a cramped room in an everyday hospital (those still open, that is, for we are in Ontario). The father is on a life-support mechanism. It is the son, recounting the memory of his father's life speaking, presenting each meaningful character.

On a second level, marginalization, we are presented with a voyage in time: from the fifties to our day. Yet, the eyes recapturing the story are those of the man, then the child, the teenager, the adult who, in Canada, lives the precarious condition of the working-class immigrant of Italian (more specifically, Sicilian) origins, struggling successfully.

At another level, it is a defiant act or re-appropriation of personal and communal reality, authenticity. How? Humour is the unifying element, a humour that exposes stereotypes, skirts around them, implodes them with rare talent. And the viewing public is caught in this game, for each vignette speaks the language of the viewer. English, interspersed with Italian, Sicilian dialect, the community language, makes the listener aware, continuously of a reality that is out there. The play does not reach out, it does not sell out memories; the play affirms its own reality, a shared reality. First loves, smoking up before concerts, Sunday dinners are the background of a common history.

Finally, the music. Calogero Chiarelli is a mean blues player. The music acts as a unifying element throughout. That's why the play is so rich and complex. On the surface, it is a tragedy and a loving act of memory. But, as we get swept away by the strength of the representation, through the humour, the authentic material and rendition, the coming to terms with a displaced life, music frames the rendition. There is no culture of lament here; Cu' Fu (who did it?) is an affirmation of life. So, have I answered my question? Canada is more than Biculturalism (Power) and exotic foods and folk dancing (entertainment). This is Canada. Cu' Fu? Eh?