I have been wanting to see this show for over a year now; ever since I saw a couple posters outside of a few business at the end of the 2025 Edmonton Fringe Festival.

Mostly because, contrary to one-line in the show, I wanted to come out and see Onika Henry!

Onika is someone who I have deeply come to respect and admire as a performer, teacher, table-top guest star, and friend over many years. And I had the privilege to direct her in my first-ever directing project at The Walterdale Theatre back in 2024.

And two years later I stand by the statement that Onika is one of the best, most confident and powerful performers in the city today. You give her a script worth diving into and a character worth embodying, she will step-up and give you show worth watching.

Adam Bailey has certain given Onika words worth saying; there is one line in this show that I ADORED and it was "When I say the name of the famous son that you all know, you'll know that my story is finished." (Not the exact words but in essence). But the words that has written for this show married with Onika's presence of and manners of delivery had the audience nodding, audibly gasping, and laughing in bewilderment at some of the outrageous history of what the Black Panther 21 and Afeni had to face, rise up against, and commit themselves to doing when the racist, corrupt and ineffective justice system had already deemed each of the members criminals that were looking at 150 years of imprisonment for made-up charges.

Nearing the end of this show we, the audience, were inspired and stirred to applaud as we feel Afeni's fight to not allow herself, her fellow revolutionaries, and her unborn child be incarcerated. And we were moved to stand up out of our seats when we had seen the scope of what Afeni was fighting against.

I have waited over a year to see this show, and I am SO very grateful that I got to see it! And I am grateful that Adam, Onika, and the producers of this show (Onika and Adam as well, Jonathan Brett) have invested in this show because, sadly still, this isn't something I see very often at the Fringe and it isn't a show I see in Edmonton outside of the Fringe either.

I hope that anyone that has seen this play and is a producer or creative in the city is inspired, as I was, to not just see this show again but to make shows like this be a regular feature of Edmonton stages.