The play ‘Harlem of the North’ is an original Black theatre production. It tells the story of a Black family who moves from the U.S. to Montreal in the 1920s, exploring themes of love and loss, with the background of the Harlem Renaissance and jazz.
“I wanted to share the feelings I have from my Black experience over here in Montreal,” playwright, director, and songwriter Frangelica Cajuste told the CONTACT. “Here we have the jazz festival every year—but this history, it could be even further explained and even further told with more. Pieces of theatre or film, TV, or some other piece of media where we could speak about that and remember where this culture comes from.”
Cajuste explained that she was born in Florida, U.S., and immigrated to Montreal. She has lived most of her life here in the city and has a similar story to the ones she presents at the theatre.
“So I went into the research, and I found out that the biggest influx was back when the kids arrived here, in the 1920s-1930s, and I wanted to share that story because if I had known about that story when I was younger or it had been presented to me in school or class, I would have felt a little bit more represented,” Cajuste said.
Cajuste added that throughout their shows that ran from June 5 to June 14 at Montreal Fringe this year, most of their audiences were packed.
She explained that this play stands out because there aren’t many theatre pieces in Canada that show a Black family or Black relationships.
“We also show in the play some people of colour, of course, because all of us exist and we do live close to each other. We interact with each other, and I want to show in the play that Black people and Latino people, we all speak with each other, and we did have an influence on each other as well,” she said.
She added that they’d like to expand on this play in the future, with a longer runtime and more music as some of their main objectives.
“We have some great reviews. It’s immense for us that this is something wonderful, and it should be further expanded on,” she said. “And what we want to expand on is, of course, the stories of the characters, because people enjoy those characters—they find them funny, relatable, and true to the stories that we live.”
