To connect conversations is necessary
The play Elapultiek (ehl-ah-bool-dee-egg)
‘we are looking towards’ is coming back to the Ross Creek Centre for the
Arts at a very appropriate time. After watching the power of nature roll over
us with hurricane Dorian, we need to reconnect with Mother Earth.
Joudry’s play
was the first time Two Planks and a Passion Theatre had commissioned an Indigenous
playwright to create a new work. The play was a meaningful success
last year and it has continued to influence. This summer Elapultiek was
staged on a weekly basis for two months at Kejimkujik National Park and National
Historic Site. Late this
month it returns for two nights.
Shalan Joudry & Soren Bondrup-Nielsen |
The premise is
simple, but powerful. Joudry’s vision shines out of her play. A young Mi’kmaw
drum singer and a biologist meet at dusk each day to count a population of
endangered Chimney Swifts. As the relationship deepens, they struggle with
their differing views of the world. Each ‘count night’ reveals a deeper complexity
of connection to land, history, and ecology, and reconciliation.
Land ownership,
controversial statues, and the residual effects of residential schools all come
up as the little birds swirl around the roost.
As Joudry has pointed
out, “the ideal of reconciliation between indigenous and non-indigenous
Canadians involve taking turns to speak and to listen, even through the most
painful of stories in order for all of us to heal."
The dialogue is drawn
from real life. Dr.
Soren Bondrup-Nielsen, who might have been the model for the biologist
character, Bill, owns up to the numeral-based approach used by academics and
bureaucrats.
According to the
emeritus professor at Acadia University, the concept of ‘two-eyed seeing,’
which was coined by Eskasoni elder Albert Marshall, best supports ecological
integrity.
The narrow
traditional approach of the biological census taker gets stretched. His growth
and Joudry’s revelations make this play so worthwhile taking in. She has been
busy raising children, performing, writing, and doing ecology work while based out
of Bear River First Nation in the traditional district of Kespukwitk (southwest
Nova Scotia).
We settler
descendants, who are so disconnected, need to sit by the flames of Elapultiek
by Fire. The performances at Two Planks take place Sept. 28 and 29.
The Ruins were
around the fire
Euripides's trilogy
that ends with The Trojan Women is pure tragedy. It’s all about the women of
Troy after their city has been sacked, their husbands killed, and set as their
remaining family members are about to be taken away as slaves.
To make things
worse there’s a young woman who can envision all the tragic action, but no one
will believe her prophecies. That’s Greek drama for you. One can’t forget that
the Trojan Women was written in 415 BC. The idea was, given the grim plot,
audience members would leave feeling their lives weren’t so bad.
Two Planks and a Passion Theatre’s premiere of The Ruins by Fire,
written by Gillian Clark, at the Ross Creek Centre for the Arts was nothing
like that – and yet it was. Staged last month, it was the third production in
the outdoor season.
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Jeff Schwager is Odysseus |
Clark’s decision to write a contemporary adaptation was a brave one,
however, Euripedes’ plays have stood the test of time. She sets the
discombobulated story on the night of the annual spring Fire Hall Dance in New
Troy, N.S.
The kids are playing outside the hall, as they usually do. But this
year, dare I say, the vibe is different. Cassandra, played very believably by
Jackie Torrens, has seen the future of her little town and it ain’t
pretty. She’s just a kid, so not
surprisingly no one will believe her.
The production featured a fine ensemble of the high-caliber actors
director Ken Schwartz brings together every year. You have to be talented
to pull off a teenager when you’re 35.
I thought Torrens was super successful at playing a young teen
cursed to see the future and not be believed. Hilary Adams as Penelope was
touching and not on stage enough.
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Genevieve Steele plays a 10-year-old |
Jeff Schwager displayed all the egotistical, patriarchal motivations
of an ancient Greek and a postmodern misogynist, but also displayed a
vulnerable streak. Devin MacKinnon as Thai expertly conveyed a bundle of
insecurities. His burning of a treasured toy rabbit, however, was hard to fathom,
as his bully Odysseus wasn’t watching. But the fates were in play.
Clark, who is studying playwriting at the National Theatre School in
Montreal, has worked with Dalhousie University and several small theatre
companies. She gave The Ruins
a 1950s feel and it proved an interesting experiment around the fire.
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