Noh-influenced libretto by renowned Canadian poet Daphne Marlatt
The Noh-influenced libretto of Shadow Catch recounts the dreams - or are they dreams? - of the Runaway, a teenage boy who ends up one night in Oppenheimer Park in Vancouver-s Downtown Eastside. Here four troubled spirits from the park-s past appear to him: the Spirit of the Maple Tree from K-emk-emel- whose grove was decimated by loggers, a member of the brilliant Asahi baseball team whose players were sent off to Japanese internment camps, the keeper of a 1920s brothel who is haunted by the tragic death of one of "her" women, and a roughneck policeman from the 1930s who gave in to corruption. This is a story not only about characters from Vancouver-s historical and cultural past, but about the journey and transformation that must take place in order to confront one-s greatest fears and regrets.
Each of the four acts in this sparse, poetic libretto were set to music by composers Dorothy Chang,
