Patricia Cano Sings songs from the (post) mistress

Track List:

1. Taansi Nimiss 5:06
2. Hey, Good-lookin’ 3:40
3. Oh Little Bear 5:26
4. Love I Know is Here 5:39
5. The Window 5:37
6. When Last I Was in Buenos Aires, Argentina 8:56 cal
7. Some Say a Rose 6:36
8. Mad to Love 5:21 T
9. Have I Told You 6:46
10. The Robins of Dawn 7:34

Description:

Patricia Cano is an amazingly entertaining performer.

At the centre of Tomson Highways musical The (Post) Mistress (its French title is Zesty Gopher sest fait ecraser par un frigo), Cano plays the energetic Metis Marie-Louise Painchaud, head of the post office in the small town of Lovely, Ontario, not far from Complexity, Ont.

Charged with being sure that the right mail gets to the right person, shes also a kind of therapist, listening to the problems of the towns inhabitants and offering her advice, at least to the audience. Through her eyes, we meet more than a dozen of the townspeople and those who write to them.

Marie-Louise hasn’t traveled much because she has a fear of flying, but she gets a sense of the world from the letters she handles. We learn that shes distanced from her husband but don’t discover the reason until near the shows end.

Against Teresa Przybylskis simple but impressively monumental set of postal pigeonholes, lit by Michel Charbonneau, Cano creates a charming storyteller, apparently able to read the thoughts of various correspondents through the envelopes.

The writers come from all over, their words inspiring musical numbers in which Highway draws on a variety of styles: samba, Dixieland, ballad, waltz, jazz, lullaby and more. A couple have the feel of Jacques Brel tunes, a combination of the spoken and the sung.

Among the standouts are a sexy, no-holds-barred tango, a tender fairy tale-like song to a child and a prayer sung in Cree. The shows last number blends the productions three languages: French, English and Cree.

Cano performs each with a powerful voice and, singing from the heart, the ability to inhabit the feeling of words and music. With a great laugh and a sparkling personality, the actor/singer wins us over with numbers that run the gamut from the up-tempo to the melancholic.

(Now Magazine)