Fortunate sons

A Rehearsed Play Reading

A dark, surreal “autobiography” written by veteran Canadian actor and Indigenous playwright Jay Brazeau, known for roles in Air Bud and Best in Show. 

This kaleidoscopic memory-play spirals through fractured time, inherited violence, and twisted family mythology, confronting the toxic shadows of intergenerational trauma.

Follow Young John, John, Johnathan, Junior and Jonah as doubles and reflections of each other, of denial, of refusal to become their predecessors. A father celebrates a son's birthday, gives a rifle as a gift instead of a book. A son tries to find truth in a shifting family mythos. A prison visit confuses the matter of who’s the one locked up. The same question is asked by multiple generations. “Why?” But it’s silence, sarcasm and violence that follows in place of an answer. Memories deform and repeat. 

Through looping scenes, as if from a dream or a fable gone wrong, Brazeau offers a map of harm, stitching it together with bitter humour and grim tenderness.

Fortunate Sons is a portrait of expectations and rules passed down. Promises to break them. Hopes that love could survive them.