{"id":342,"date":"2022-11-12T23:55:20","date_gmt":"2022-11-12T23:55:20","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.critical-stages.org\/26\/?p=342"},"modified":"2022-11-15T22:19:28","modified_gmt":"2022-11-15T22:19:28","slug":"canadas-shaw-festival-has-become-a-showcase-for-african-american-playwrights","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.critical-stages.org\/26\/canadas-shaw-festival-has-become-a-showcase-for-african-american-playwrights\/","title":{"rendered":"Canada\u2019s Shaw Festival Has Become a Showcase for African-American Playwrights"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><strong>Martin Morrow<\/strong><a href=\"#end\" name=\"back\">*<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"has-background wp-block-paragraph\" style=\"background-color:#e3c7ca\"><em>Gem of the Ocean<\/em>, by August Wilson, directed by Philip Akin; August 5 to October 9, 2022. <em>Everybody<\/em>, by Branden Jacobs-Jenkins, directed by L\u00e1szl\u00f3 B\u00e9rczes; June 8 to October 8, 2022. Both shows at the Shaw Festival, Ontario, Canada.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">You wouldn\u2019t expect a Canadian theatre festival dedicated to the works of Irish dramatist Bernard Shaw to also be a showcase for African-American writing. The Shaw Festival at Niagara-on-the-Lake, Ontario\u2014a picturesque historic town on the shores of Lake Ontario, about 130 km from Toronto\u2014has, in fact, been quietly building a reputation for impressive productions of plays by America\u2019s leading Black playwrights.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">That was brought home during the 2022 season\u2014the Shaw\u2019s 60th and its first \u201cnormal\u201d one since the pandemic\u2014when it staged not one, but two works by Black writers from the U.S.: <em>Gem of the Ocean<\/em> by the great August Wilson and <em>Everybody<\/em> by rising star Branden Jacobs-Jenkins.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-embed is-type-rich is-provider-embed-handler wp-block-embed-embed-handler wp-embed-aspect-16-9 wp-has-aspect-ratio\"><div class=\"wp-block-embed__wrapper\">\n<iframe loading=\"lazy\" title=\"Shaw Festival Unveils 2022 Season Playbill\" width=\"800\" height=\"450\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/mBmp6DFS6UM?feature=oembed\" frameborder=\"0\" allow=\"accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture\" allowfullscreen><\/iframe>\n<\/div><figcaption class=\"wp-element-caption\">Shaw Festival Unveils 2022 Season Playbill<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">To understand their place at the Shaw, you have to appreciate the festival\u2019s evolving mandate, which has come to embrace not just the plays of its provocative namesake but also those written in the Shavian spirit (that is, vigorously intellectual, challenging the status quo). A decade ago, the festival began to partner with Toronto\u2019s Obsidian Theatre, one of Canada\u2019s foremost Black companies, to stage work that fitted the criteria.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Philip Akin, Obsidian\u2019s former artistic director, has become the festival\u2019s principal interpreter of Black playwrights. In 2021, he mounted a revelatory production of Alice Childress\u2019 rediscovered <em>Trouble in Mind<\/em>. This past season, he was at the helm of Wilson\u2019s packed, powerful <a href=\"https:\/\/www.critical-stages.org\/20\/cotillion-of-loss-summoning-august-wilsons-african-american-century1\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\"><em>Gem of the Ocean<\/em><\/a>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><em>Gem<\/em> is the first instalment in Wilson\u2019s monumental 10-play Pittsburgh Cycle, chronicling African-American life in the twentieth century\u2014one play per decade. Set in Pittsburgh\u2019s Hill District in 1904, the work has a particular appeal to Canadian audiences. Two of its characters are former \u201cconductors\u201d on the legendary Underground Railroad, the secret network of back roads and safe houses that helped slaves in the pre-Civil War American South escape to freedom in Canada.<\/p>\n\n\n<div class=\"wp-block-image\">\n<figure class=\"aligncenter size-full\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"800\" height=\"535\" src=\"https:\/\/www.critical-stages.org\/26\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/27\/2022\/11\/image1-3.jpeg\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-344\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.critical-stages.org\/26\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/27\/2022\/11\/image1-3.jpeg 800w, https:\/\/www.critical-stages.org\/26\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/27\/2022\/11\/image1-3-300x201.jpeg 300w, https:\/\/www.critical-stages.org\/26\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/27\/2022\/11\/image1-3-768x514.jpeg 768w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 800px) 100vw, 800px\" \/><figcaption class=\"wp-element-caption\">Sophia Walker (left) as Black Mary, tends to Monica Parks as Aunt Ester Tyler in August Wilson\u2019s <em>Gem of the Ocean<\/em>. Photo: Emily Cooper<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">When the aforesaid conductors, Solly Two Kings (played by David Alan Anderson) and his buddy Eli (Jeremiah Sparks), gleefully recall arriving in Canada to be greeted by smiling people \u201cwhite as cotton\u201d and extol the country north of the U.S. as \u201cFreedomland,\u201d you might almost think that Wilson (who died in 2005) was anticipating this production. (Of course, Canada has its own shameful history of slavery and racism, but that\u2019s another story.) However, Solly couldn\u2019t remain in Canada while his people were still in chains. Now, four decades after the Emancipation Proclamation, he\u2019s eking out a living in Pittsburgh while still questioning what it means to be truly free.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Solly is a frequent visitor at the home of Aunt Ester Tyler (Monica Parks), a forbidding matriarch who claims to be 285 years old and who specializes in \u201ccleansing souls.\u201d When the play opens, she\u2019s being importuned by a desperate young man, Citizen Barlow (Nathanael Judah), who insists on being cleansed for a murder.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Citizen Barlow has fled the segregated South only to find conditions are scarcely better in the free North. Given sanctuary by Aunt Ester, he\u2019s put to work by her gatekeeper, Eli, and begins a flirtatious friendship with her young domestic helper, Black Mary (Sophia Walker).<\/p>\n\n\n<div class=\"wp-block-image\">\n<figure class=\"aligncenter size-full\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"800\" height=\"501\" src=\"https:\/\/www.critical-stages.org\/26\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/27\/2022\/11\/image2-2.jpeg\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-345\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.critical-stages.org\/26\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/27\/2022\/11\/image2-2.jpeg 800w, https:\/\/www.critical-stages.org\/26\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/27\/2022\/11\/image2-2-300x188.jpeg 300w, https:\/\/www.critical-stages.org\/26\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/27\/2022\/11\/image2-2-768x481.jpeg 768w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 800px) 100vw, 800px\" \/><figcaption class=\"wp-element-caption\">David Alan Anderson (left) as Solly Two Kings, shows his walking stick to Jeremiah Sparks (centre) as Eli and Nathanael Judah as Citizen Barlow in <em>Gem of the Ocean<\/em>. Photo: Emily Cooper<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">In the meantime, Solly has received a letter from his sister in Alabama, detailing the deteriorating conditions for Black folks, and is determined to bring her North. His decision to briefly defer his mission to help Aunt Ester with the cleansing ritual for Citizen Barlow becomes his downfall.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">While Solly Two Kings is the play\u2019s self-sacrificing hero, its villain is local constable Caesar Wilks (Allan Louis). Caesar, who is Black Mary\u2019s brother, has lived a life motivated by self-interest and finally betrayed his roots by becoming an enforcer of the white man\u2019s laws. Like all the best villains, he\u2019s full of eloquent justifications for his choices, which a smooth Louis delivered persuasively.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Wilson artfully mixes the melodramatic with the mystical, the latter reaching a crescendo in the eerie, emotional cleansing of Citizen Barlow. It finds Aunt Ester conjuring up a voyage on a ship dubbed <em>Gem of the Ocean<\/em> to a city built entirely from the bones of slaves who didn\u2019t survive the crossing from Africa to America. Involving a giant map, a paper boat, masks, incantations and singing, it became, in Akin\u2019s assured staging, a scene at first mildly comical and then profoundly moving, as Judah\u2019s Citizen Barlow becomes helplessly, fearfully immersed in the haunting illusion.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">The scene also included a neat little <em>coup de th\u00e9\u00e2tre<\/em>. Designed by Camellia Koo, the entire show took place around a multi-purpose refectory table, which dominated the Jackie Maxwell Studio Theatre\u2019s in-the-round playing space. At the height of the cleansing ritual, the table began to split into two down its entire length, creating a curving channel that Citizen Barlow negotiated on his way to the City of Bones.<\/p>\n\n\n<div class=\"wp-block-image\">\n<figure class=\"aligncenter size-full\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"800\" height=\"504\" src=\"https:\/\/www.critical-stages.org\/26\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/27\/2022\/11\/image3-2.jpeg\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-346\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.critical-stages.org\/26\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/27\/2022\/11\/image3-2.jpeg 800w, https:\/\/www.critical-stages.org\/26\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/27\/2022\/11\/image3-2-300x189.jpeg 300w, https:\/\/www.critical-stages.org\/26\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/27\/2022\/11\/image3-2-768x484.jpeg 768w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 800px) 100vw, 800px\" \/><figcaption class=\"wp-element-caption\">Nathanael Judah as Citizen Barlow (seated) prepares to be cleansed by Monica Parks\u2019 Aunt Esther (right, foreground) in <em>Gem of the Ocean<\/em>. Photo: Emily Cooper<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Akin drew strong performances from his cast: Judah, a picture of rough-hewn, round-faced naivety as Citizen Barlow; Walker, by turns sullen and saucy as Black Mary; Sparks, bringing both muscle and a sweet singing voice to the role of Eli; an amiable Jason Cadieux as Rutherford Selig, a peddler of goods and gossip and the play\u2019s sole white character. Anderson as Solly, with his mighty staff\u2014bearing 62 notches, one for every slave he\u2019s helped escape\u2014conveyed the steely determination of a Moses-like figure, as well as the torments of a man who has seen real freedom continually withheld from his people. My only quibble was that Parks, while a very fine Aunt Ester, seemed too youthful in the role of an elderly woman described by Caesar as having \u201cboth feet in the grave just waiting for the body to follow.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><em>Gem of the Ocean<\/em> ends with a passing of the torch, as Citizen Barlow takes on Solly Two Kings\u2019 mantle and embarks as a new generation of freedom fighter. Knowing that this play is the start of a century-encompassing cycle, it leaves you contemplating how much African-Americans would attain over the coming decades and, despite that remarkable progress, how deep the legacy of racism still runs in U.S. society today.<\/p>\n\n\n<div class=\"wp-block-image\">\n<figure class=\"aligncenter size-full\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"800\" height=\"532\" src=\"https:\/\/www.critical-stages.org\/26\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/27\/2022\/11\/image4-2.jpeg\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-347\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.critical-stages.org\/26\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/27\/2022\/11\/image4-2.jpeg 800w, https:\/\/www.critical-stages.org\/26\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/27\/2022\/11\/image4-2-300x200.jpeg 300w, https:\/\/www.critical-stages.org\/26\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/27\/2022\/11\/image4-2-768x511.jpeg 768w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 800px) 100vw, 800px\" \/><figcaption class=\"wp-element-caption\">She comes for Everybody: Sharry Flett as Death (left) and Kiera Sangster in the titular role in Branden Jacobs-Jenkins\u2019 <em>Everybody<\/em>. Photo: David Cooper<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Racism is still the great, inevitable theme that every serious Black playwright in America must at some point address. Jacobs-Jenkins, a writer with a propensity for satire, did it brilliantly in <em>An Octoroon<\/em>, his contemporary deconstruction of Dion Boucicault\u2019s nineteenth-century slavery melodrama, in the Shaw\u2019s 2017 season. But in <em>Everybody<\/em>, his cheeky but poignant rewrite of the medieval morality play <em>Everyman<\/em>, he takes on a subject that touches everyone, regardless of, as they used to say, race, creed or colour.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><em>Everyman<\/em>, that fifteenth-century exhortation to Christians to repent and do good before the Last Judgment, has survived into a secular age thanks to its sobering reminder of the ephemerality of human life and the inevitability of death. In his modern version, Jacobs-Jenkins takes a lighthearted approach without diluting the play\u2019s essential truths.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">He\u2019s also turned it into one of those exercises that challenge actors and delight the audience. A lottery is held onstage at the start of each performance to determine which of five actors (in a cast of 10) will portray the role of the doomed Everyman\u2014here renamed Everybody. The remaining four are given 13 characters to play. That means all five actors have had to memorize 14 roles, not knowing who they\u2019ll be playing at any given show. It\u2019s a tidy way of showing that Death can come to anyone at any time.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Death herself was played in the Shaw production by festival veteran Sharry Flett as a spry, track-suited grandmother type. God is a woman, too\u2014embodied here with comic brio by Deborah Hay, who appeared first as an awkward Shaw Festival usher, charged with speaking the show\u2019s introduction, before transforming, with halo, microphone and blind spectacles, into a thundering\u2014but apparently not all-seeing\u2014Deity.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">God orders Death to lead Everybody to their final reckoning and Everybody tries to get one of their allegorical pals to tag along\u2014Friendship, Cousin, Kinship or Stuff. All turn down the invitation and, eventually, Strength, Beauty, Mind and Senses abandon Everybody as well. Finally, it is only Love and Evil, what they have done in this life, that will accompany them into the grave.<\/p>\n\n\n<div class=\"wp-block-image\">\n<figure class=\"aligncenter size-full\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"800\" height=\"532\" src=\"https:\/\/www.critical-stages.org\/26\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/27\/2022\/11\/image5-1.jpeg\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-348\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.critical-stages.org\/26\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/27\/2022\/11\/image5-1.jpeg 800w, https:\/\/www.critical-stages.org\/26\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/27\/2022\/11\/image5-1-300x200.jpeg 300w, https:\/\/www.critical-stages.org\/26\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/27\/2022\/11\/image5-1-768x511.jpeg 768w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 800px) 100vw, 800px\" \/><figcaption class=\"wp-element-caption\">Andrew Broderick (left) as Love and Travis Seetoo as Everybody in <em>Everybody<\/em>. Photo: David Cooper<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Jacobs-Jenkins\u2019 contemporary interpretation replaces the original play\u2019s Christian beliefs with a general sense of morality and the existence of God is continually brought into question. He also frames Everybody\u2019s encounters with Friendship et al. as a series of dreams, followed by waking discussions. In one of these, Everybody takes exception when someone repeats a racialized term used by Friendship, accusing the speaker of being a \u201ccrypto-racist,\u201d which grows into an ongoing dispute. It\u2019s a diverting digression, perhaps the playwright\u2019s nod to the fact that, as a Black writer, it\u2019s an issue he can\u2019t dodge even in this context.<\/p>\n\n\n<div class=\"wp-block-image\">\n<figure class=\"aligncenter size-full\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"800\" height=\"532\" src=\"https:\/\/www.critical-stages.org\/26\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/27\/2022\/11\/image6-2.jpeg\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-349\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.critical-stages.org\/26\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/27\/2022\/11\/image6-2.jpeg 800w, https:\/\/www.critical-stages.org\/26\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/27\/2022\/11\/image6-2-300x200.jpeg 300w, https:\/\/www.critical-stages.org\/26\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/27\/2022\/11\/image6-2-768x511.jpeg 768w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 800px) 100vw, 800px\" \/><figcaption class=\"wp-element-caption\">The Shaw Festival\u2019s <em>Everybody<\/em> included a cemetery-themed set by Hungarian designer Bal\u00e1zs Cziegler. Photo: David Cooper<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">The show was directed and designed, respectively, by the Hungarian team of L\u00e1szl\u00f3 B\u00e9rczes and Bal\u00e1zs Cziegler, who adopted a playfully macabre tone. Like <em>Gem of the Ocean<\/em>, the show was presented in the round at the Jackie Maxwell Studio, the entire space carpeted with artificial grass to resemble a cemetery. Cziegler\u2019s set consisted of a pleasant green landscape with trees and large berms that suggested graves. Kevin Lamotte\u2019s lighting included moments when we were plunged into funereal darkness and composer Claudio Vena provided a score in the jaunty vein of Gounod\u2019s <em>Funeral March of a Marionette<\/em>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Apart from the actors already mentioned, the ensemble included Patrick Galligan, Julie Lumsden, Michael Man, Kiera Sangster, Travis Seetoo and Donna Soares, all as the potential Everybody, along with Andrew Broderick as Love and Alana Randall as Time. In one of the play\u2019s funny\/sobering moments, Hay\u2019s usher explains to Time that the shirt she\u2019s wearing came from the Shaw Festival. To which Time responds: \u201cI have no idea what that is.\u201d Ouch. Even 60-year-old theatre institutions may be nothing in the grand temporal scheme of things.<\/p>\n\n\n<div class=\"wp-block-image\">\n<figure class=\"aligncenter size-full\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"800\" height=\"532\" src=\"https:\/\/www.critical-stages.org\/26\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/27\/2022\/11\/PER-Shaw-photo-exit.jpg\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-350\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.critical-stages.org\/26\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/27\/2022\/11\/PER-Shaw-photo-exit.jpg 800w, https:\/\/www.critical-stages.org\/26\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/27\/2022\/11\/PER-Shaw-photo-exit-300x200.jpg 300w, https:\/\/www.critical-stages.org\/26\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/27\/2022\/11\/PER-Shaw-photo-exit-768x511.jpg 768w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 800px) 100vw, 800px\" \/><figcaption class=\"wp-element-caption\">Travis Seetoo\u2019s Everybody (centre) makes his last exit, accompanied by Patrick Galligan (left) as Evil and Andrew Broderick as Love. Photo: David Cooper<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">For now, though, the festival is important, not least for letting Canadian audiences hear the voices of major Black American writers, after decades in which their white American counterparts have dominated the country\u2019s playbills. We only wait to see more of Canada\u2019s BIPOC playwrights on its stages.<a name=\"end\">&nbsp;<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n<hr class=\"wp-block-separator has-alpha-channel-opacity is-style-wide\"\/>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image size-thumbnail alignnone\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"143\" height=\"150\" src=\"https:\/\/www.critical-stages.org\/26\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/27\/2022\/11\/Martin-Morrow-143x150.jpg\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-351\"\/><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><a name=\"end\" href=\"#back\">*<\/a><strong>Martin Morrow<\/strong> is a Past President of the Canadian Theatre Critics Association and a two-time winner of Canada\u2019s Nathan Cohen Award for excellence in critical writing. He has served as chief theatre critic of the <em>Calgary Herald<\/em> (1988\u20132000), <em>Fast Forward Weekly<\/em> (2003\u201306) and <em>The Grid<\/em> (2011\u201314). Since 2010, he has been a theatre critic and arts writer for <em>The Globe and Mail<\/em>, Canada\u2019s national newspaper.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"has-text-align-center has-small-font-size wp-block-paragraph\">Copyright <strong>\u00a9<\/strong> 2022 Martin Morrow<br><em>Critical Stages\/Sc\u00e8nes critiques<\/em> e-ISSN:2409-7411<\/p>\n\n\n<div class=\"wp-block-image\">\n<figure class=\"aligncenter\"><a href=\"https:\/\/creativecommons.org\/licenses\/by-nc-nd\/4.0\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\"><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/www.critical-stages.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/03\/88x31.png\" alt=\"Creative Commons Attribution International License\"\/><\/a><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n\n\n<p class=\"has-text-align-center has-small-font-size wp-block-paragraph\">This work is licensed under the<br>Creative Commons Attribution International License CC BY-NC-ND 4.0.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":349,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"advanced_seo_description":"","jetpack_seo_html_title":"","jetpack_seo_noindex":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_feature_clip_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[10],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-342","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-performance-reviews"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/www.critical-stages.org\/26\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/27\/2022\/11\/image6-2.jpeg","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.critical-stages.org\/26\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/342","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.critical-stages.org\/26\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.critical-stages.org\/26\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.critical-stages.org\/26\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.critical-stages.org\/26\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=342"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/www.critical-stages.org\/26\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/342\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":519,"href":"https:\/\/www.critical-stages.org\/26\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/342\/revisions\/519"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.critical-stages.org\/26\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/349"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.critical-stages.org\/26\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=342"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.critical-stages.org\/26\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=342"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.critical-stages.org\/26\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=342"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}