Search: As you Like It a radical retelling by Cliff Cardinal

Huge congratulations to Cliff Cardinal for winning the 2023 Governor General’s Literary Award for Drama for his play “William Shakespeare’s As You Like It, a Radical Retelling by Cliff Cardinal. “

When it first played at Crow’s Theatre in Toronto, I hated it. Reaction was loud and swift.   Ooohh were the comments “interesting.” People went to see the show. I love that!! Imagine a theatre critic who actually wants people to go to the theatre, even when one doesn’t like a play.

It then played The Great Canadian Theatre Company in Ottawa. I sensed from the title it was slightly different. I saw it again, to see what I missed. Cliff Cardinal re-wrote the play. Changed it from top to bottom. He still kept his anger but it was different.

I loved this version and reviewed it.

He then brought it to Toronto under the Mirvish banner with an even bigger change, but still the same cheek and ire.

Loved it again and reviewed it again.

He changed his play and I changed my mind. That’s what happens when one is open to different ideas and thoughts.

Here are the three iterations of the review:

Review: THE LAND ACKNOWLEDGEMENT, or As You Like It.

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Live and in person at the CAA Theatre, 651 Yonge St., Toronto, Ont. Produced by David Mirvish and Crow’s Theatre. Plays until April 2, 2023.

www.mirvish.com

Written and performed by Cliff Cardinal

Creative Co-Conspirator, Chris Abraham

Lighting by Logan Cracknell

NOTE: This is the third iteration of this funny, bracing, challenging show by Cliff Cardinal that I have seen since 2021.

Background.

FIRST ITERATION.  

A version of this show opened at Crow’s Theatre in 2021 and was called: “William Shakespeare’s As You Like It—a radical retelling by Cliff Cardinal.”

If one delved into the website of Crow’s they would see the additional title of “The Land Acknowledgement.” The running time was 90 minutes according to the website.

Cliff Cardinal, dressed in black pants, a black t-shirt underneath which was an orange t-shirt (It was Truth and Reconciliation Day) and a black windbreaker, came out from behind the red curtain on stage and began by saying: “My name is Cliff Cardinal and this is my Land Acknowledgement.”

He was charming, smiling, impish, and angry. He was angry at what was happening to Mother Earth, because of pollution, or oil spills and all manner of ills. He hated land acknowledgements no matter who gave them. He had harsh words for the Catholic Church, the rich, (saying they didn’t work hard; a person who picked strawberries worked hard). He went on and on in a measured, theatrical way.  Where was As You Like It?  At about the 45-minute mark of this performance of what turned out to be a one-hour show, Cliff Cardinal addressed that very question—where was As You Like It? He said innocently that there was none. He pulled back the curtain to show there was no scenery or even a hint of As You Like It a radical re-telling or otherwise. It was a trick. Cliff Cardinal as a trickster. And we were urged at the end of the show not to give away the trick.

In my review:

https://slotkinletter.com/?s=As+you+Like+It+a+radical+retelling+by+Cliff+Cardinal

 I felt Cliff Cardinal was giving the audience the finger. I said so in the review. All hell broke loose as a result. Lots of invective to me, (racist, irrelevant, worse) usually from people who didn’t see the show or read the review properly, or misinterpreted it or whatever; some positive comment; some discussion but lots of angry comment at a review that told what I was looking at. I did not play into the trick and the urging of ‘don’t tell what the ruse is.’ I said at the end of the review of the land acknowledgement: “as for As You Like It—I didn’t.”  

The result is that I got more hits on my blog because of that review than I have ever received for any other review. People wrote or called me and said they would not see the show because of the review. One was from Mirvish Productions. I insisted they go. They had to see it for themselves, they could not take my opinion as theirs.

One of the mysteries to the public that they don’t know, of theatre criticism, is that I actually want people to go to the theatre and decide for themselves especially if my review is less than positive. Those folks went as I urged. They all loved it. I could not be more delighted. Another mystery of theatre criticism, we don’t have to agree. We have to be open for discussion. The show was held over twice; the first announcement was made on opening night, before any review; the second holdover was announced soon after the few reviews appeared. I was the notable negative one. Forgive the arrogance, but I am taking full credit for the second hold-over of the show because of the clamor of my review. Another mystery of theatre reviews? They get people to go to the theatre. At least mine seem to do that.

SECOND ITERATION.

I saw that The Great Canadian Theatre Company in Ottawa was programming the show. Now it was called: As You Like It: a radical retelling. There was no mention on the GCTC website of The Land Acknowledgement. It was still marketed as a radical retelling of As You Like It. I was intrigued. I decided to drive to Ottawa, to GCTC, one Sunday, to see the show again, to see what I missed.

The Production. The GCTC lobby is fitted out with pastoral pictures that look like they take place in a forest. A character looks like he is a Joker of sorts, playing on that vision of As You Like It.  As I sit in my seat waiting for curtain time, I hear the sounds of birds tweeting and the lilting recorded voice of Ed McCurdy singing a variety of folk songs. It’s all in aid of setting us up for As You Like It.

(I ask the young man beside me why he’s come to this show. He says that he’s studying As You Like It in school and he’s reading the play and is interested in what Cliff Cardinal has to say. The young man rarely goes to the theatre. I ask the woman next to him—he doesn’t know her—why she’s come. She says that she’s Indigenous and she wants “to see him (Cliff Cardinal) smash this play” (presumably a play of the colonizers). I don’t say a word of information about the show to either of them beforehand, and we go our separate ways after, so I don’t ask what they thought.)

The lights dim. Cliff Cardinal comes out—black pants, shoes, t-shirt, jacket, no orange t-shirt under the black t-shirt. I wait for him to say, “My name is Cliff Cardinal and this is my land acknowledgement.” He doesn’t say it. I wait for him to follow that with: “I’m angry.” Nope. He talks about the land on which GCTC is situated in vague terms, like every other land acknowledgement. He then says that he hates land acknowledgements. He hates them said by ‘settlers.’ He hates them said by Indigenous people. He has cutting words for the ‘woke,’ for those professing to be ‘allies,’ for the rich, for the destructive Catholic Church, pedophile priests, nasty nuns, lazy, care-less teachers, anything phony. He does have respect for hard-working strawberry pickers.  

He gently chides the Ottawa audience to keep up and see how what he is saying connects to the land. The land has rivers and streams polluted by industry. There are approximately 7,000 children buried in the land in unmarked graves on the property of former residential schools run by the Catholic Church. There are thousands of Indigenous women and girls missing from the land.

Cliff Cardinal’s piercing laser gaze firmly pins you to the seat, squirming. He’s not flicking his middle digit. It’s much subtler than that. He is an equal opportunity skewerer. He will make everybody squirm with his quiet, devastating truths. He follows every barb with an impish, ‘disarming’ smile, leaving you questioning every assumption you may have had about anything to do with Indigenous culture, colonialism, land acknowledgements and what you think might be true.

He has completely rethought his show, turned it inside out and upside down. He has expanded it, refocused his attention to every aspect of it and clarified various connections. He still has the trick of revealing there is no As You Like It, except as a play on words and he still asks the audience to keep the ruse and not tell. I don’t have such an obligation to the theatre company or the playwright. Revealing the trick doesn’t diminish the importance of this show.   

This is a land acknowledgement like you have never heard one before. The result is bracing, brutal and brilliant.

THIRD ITERATION.

The sound of birds twittering can be heard as the audience files in. The lilting voice of Ed McCurdy sings traditional folk songs.

The show at the CAA Theatre is now appropriately titled, THE LAND ACKNOWLEDGEMENT, or As You Like It. Cliff Cardinal appears from behind the red curtain hanging across the CAA Theatre stage and says: “My name is Cliff Cardinal and this is my land acknowledgement.” He vaguely references that at one point in the show’s development that William Shakespeare’s As You Like It was part of the title, but was thought that if you offered that as the show and didn’t fulfill that offer that the Mirvish audience wouldn’t be able to handle it. Hmmmm. So at the get-go the audience knows the show is the land acknowledgement without the trick of the offer of As You Like It, that is then snatched away. In this case the sub-title of As You Like It can just be considered a play on words, which it is.

To some, tricking the audience by offering them one show but giving them another, is equitable to the duplicity shown to Indigenous Peoples over history. Uh, no, I don’t think so. Every person in the audience has been tricked, or short changed or duped somehow in their lives. Equating that with having to live with polluted, contaminated rivers on a reserve because of the mendacity of industry is ridiculous and not even in the same universe of trickery. It’s best that for this run at least, the trick is cut.

Cliff Cardinal continues to be a charming, often impish, engaging performer/story-teller. He is very attuned to the audience and their reactions or lack-there-of and how to ‘play’ them and play to them. His arguments are pointed but they are made initially in a disarming way. And then the arguments come fast and with a sense of fury. He’s angry and he says it quietly for real effect and he lets the audience know it in no uncertain terms.   

For this iteration the basic shape and presentation of The Land Acknowledgement is fundamentally the same as he presented in Ottawa (the second iteration). Mother Earth, the land and what is happening to it is there in Cliff Cardinal’s laser gaze.  Again, he follows every barb with an impish, ‘disarming’ smile, leaving you questioning every assumption you may have had about anything to do with Indigenous culture, colonialism, land acknowledgements and what you think might be true. He says that he hates land acknowledgements. He hates them said by ‘settlers.’ He hates them said by Indigenous people. He has cutting words for the ‘woke,’ for those professing to be ‘allies,’ for the rich, for the destructive Catholic Church, pedophile priests, nasty nuns, lazy, care-less teachers, anything phony. He does have respect for hard-working strawberry pickers.  

He continues to subtly re-work, reposition, shift and change the focus of speeches and sections. I sense that the anger at the Catholic Church and the various priests and nuns come in for particular attention this time around. He has expanded the section of needing good, trained, caring teachers to teach on reserves to inspire students, not some incompetent who couldn’t get a job at a school they preferred.

The result is that THE LAND ACKNOWLEDGEMENT, or As You Like It is a funny, challenging, deeply felt, moving show that will make you squirm, think, ponder, and reconsider everything you thought about this subject.

I want every single person who saw William Shakespeare’s As You Like It—a radical retelling by Cliff Cardinal at Crow’s Theatre to see the show again in the revised version, as The Land Acknowledgement or As You Like It at the CAA Theatre. And if you never saw it before, for whatever reason, see it! The change in the title accurately reveals what this show is about. It needs to be seen, heard, reflected upon, pondered and considered.

David Mirvish and Crow’s Theatre Present:

Opened: March 14, 2023.

Plays until April 2, 2023

Running Time: 90 minutes (no intermission)

www.mirvish.com

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Live, in-person, indoors in the Guloien Theatre of Crow’s Theatre, Toronto, Ont. until Oct. 24. 2021.

www.crowstheatre.com

Writer/performer, Cliff Cardinal

Creative co-conspirator, Chris Abraham

Creative co-conspirator, Rouvan Silogix

Lighting designer, Logan Cracknell

Cliff Cardinal is charming, impish and smiling. He’s also angry. He is giving the land acknowledgement before the beginning of his “radical retelling” of William Shakespeare’s As You Like It, and he just hates them—land acknowledgements. He hates it when a white person gives them—disingenuous. And he hates it when Indigenous people give the land acknowledgement. Mr. Cardinal is Lakota-Dene, born on the Pine Ridge Indian Reservation. He’s angry because the land of the Indigenous people in this country and in the U.S. where his father lives, was stolen by settlers. He’s angry at those professing to be allies when it just seems like lip-service. He says that to an Indigenous person the land is like Mother. So when oil spills on the land, as from an oil leak from a pipeline, it spills on Mother Earth. He’s angry about climate change. He’s angry at the rich because they don’t work hard. A person who picks strawberries works harder. (Interesting that. I was sitting up the row from the people whose name is on the theatre where we are. I was sitting in front of a couple who own a vineyard in Prince Edward County who gave a lot of money to this very theatre company. I was sitting behind generous, respected patrons of the arts, who also donated money to this company. Hmmmm.)

Cliff Cardinal then segues in his land acknowledgement to residential schools and the unmarked graves that were ‘found.’ He unloads about how the Catholic Church is responsible for the horrors of the residential schools; this segues to pedophile-priests, cruel nuns, the Pope and his lack of condemnation. Cliff Cardinal is angry that only teachers who could not get jobs where they wanted to teach come up north to (badly) teach Indigenous students and then leave as soon as they get a better job where they really want to teach. He wants better teachers for Indigenous students. No argument there.   

He quietly rages about many minorities who have also suffered over time: Syrians, Rwandans, Bosnians, Rohingya, Palestinians. While he tangentially references them, conspicuous by its absence is any mention of the Jews in that list. I found that interesting.   

For that long extended, occasionally funny, anger-filled land acknowledgement, Cliff Cardinal,  is giving the audience “the finger.”

It’s opening night of this new show. It’s also the first ever National Day for Truth and Reconciliation, a somber day of reflection, responsibility and consideration. Many people in the audience wear orange to commemorate the thousands of Indigenous children who were taken from their families to attend residential schools and the thousands who did not return. And with quiet charm Cliff Cardinal gives his unsuspecting, captive audience, “the finger.” Without actually flicking that stiff middle digit or saying F—K-YOU the point of his extended land acknowledgement is clear. He is telling the audience his truth and reconciliation is impossible.

There is a post-show message in the program that says that aspects of the play….”shapes the audience’s experience in a particular way and invites the audience (we hope) to think about the actions of the artist, our expectations as theatre-goers, and the social, political, and economic conditions that underpin the theatre-going experience. We hope you will walk away tonight thinking about your experience of the show and live with the feelings and thoughts you had while watching it.”  Gawwd. Ya know, for really smart theatre creators, as the ones involved in this enterprise, they can be really ‘thick’ and clueless. The quote betrays such an ignorance of audiences and what they think and how they feel when they watch a show. Of course the audience thinks about the experience! And they live with the feelings. Why do you think they show up? And the place was buzzing with comments at the end so the creative co-conspirators should be happy.

And as for the ‘radical retelling of As You Like It? I didn’t.

Produced by Crow’s Theatre.

Playing until: Oct. 24, 2021.

Running Time: It doesn’t matter.

www.crowstheatre.com

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As many of you know, I have been giving out Tootsie Pops for many years to people in the theatre as a way of saying ‘thank you for making the theatre so special for me.’ Instead of doing top 10 lists of the best theatre and performances of the year, I do The Tootsie Awards that are personal, eclectic, whimsical and totally subjective.

Here are this year’s selections:

PEOPLE

The Guts of a Bandit Award

Diana Bentley and Ted Dykstra

Co-engineers of Coal Mine Theatre. Their original theatre space was destroyed in a fire just before their season was to begin. They needed a new space and funds to continue with their season, albeit delayed. They didn’t quit. Their supporters/audiences/champions pitched in with their fundraising. Diana Bentley and Ted Dykstra went about finding a new space and producing their season (Yerma, The Effect and Appropriate) with the same standards and quality. The new space is at 2076 Danforth Ave.

Gil Garratt

Artistic director of the Blyth Festival. Not only did he adapt James Reaney’s huge The Donnelly Trilogy, he also directed it for the outdoor Harvest Stage.  He and his stalwart company often did a lot of fast maneuvering when the weather made it impossible to do a segment outdoors, so with quick reconfiguring they moved the performance into the Memorial Hall a few blocks away, and efficiently conveyed that to the expected audience. It all worked a treat.

The Chameleon Award

Ali Kazmi

Ali Kazmi is such a find actor he disappears into a role like a chameleon, as recent work would attest. In New by Pamela Sinha, (Necessary Angel/Canadian Stage) he played a reluctant husband in an arranged marriage, awkward, angst-ridden, frustrated; in Uncle Vanya (Crow’s) he played Dr. Ostrov, charming, exhausted, full of ennui at the world he lives in and smitten by a married woman; in Bengal Tiger at the Baghdad Zoo (Crow’s) by Rajiv Joseph, he played Uday Hussein, the swaggering, sadistic son of Saddam Hussein. Uday was a cold-blooded killer, without conscience or regret. For a complete change of pace, in Beyond the Moon (Tarragon) by Anosh Irani, Ali Kazmi played an obsequious, frightened immigrant named Ayub working at a restaurant for an unscrupulous employer who kept him a virtual prisoner in the place. In each case, Ali Kazmi illuminates the truth and heart of each individual character.  

The Jon Kaplan Mensch Award

Thom Allison

Thom Allison is a gifted singer-actor whose humanity oozes out of every pore, no matter if he is singing in a concert, or acting on stage or on television.  There is a graciousness and nobility to his work. This summer he applied those gifts to directing the musical Rent on the Festival Stage at the Stratford Festival. Thom Allison illuminated the humanity and compassion of those mainly self-absorbed characters and made the whole enterprise pulse with life and depth.

The Arkady Spivak Gifted Theatre Creator Award

Ravi Jain

Ravi Jain and Miriam Fernandes worked for eight years to adapt the epic Sanskrit poem Mahabharata for the stage. Ravi Jain also directed it, realizing its sweep, beauty, complexity, artfulness, traditions and being true to its South Asian origins. He cast actors of South Asian descent from Canada, Britain, South Asia and Australia for authenticity. It played the Shaw Festival in Canada and then travelled to the Barbican Theatre in London, England. There will be a world tour of the piece and one senses Ravi Jain’s involvement here as well. His international reach and contacts make this huge international endeavor possible.  

The Jaw-droppers—They Can Do Anything–Award

Amaka Umeh

In Sizwe Banzi is Dead by Athol Fugard, (Soulpeper) Amaka Umeh played Styles, the easy-going, loose-limbed photographer who helps Sizwe out of an impossible situation. They played the whip-smart, sophisticated Rosaline in Loves Labour’s Lost at the Stratford Festival. The performance was full of confidence and grace. And in Sweeter, (Cahoots) Amaka Umeh played Jedadiah, a kindly merchant, in an uncredited part. Umeh is pure grace in the part. They were also the assistant director of Sweeter.

Tawiah M’Carthy

As the director of Fairview earlier in the year at Canadian Stage, Director Tawiah M’Carthy kept a light hand on the proceedings but a keen sense of detail, attention and a strong sense of humour. There are many traps in the play that can upend the proceedings but M’Carthy avoids every one of them. Smart work. He brought his directorial eye to topdog/underdog (Canadian Stage) about the love/hate relationship between two Black brothers. The relationships were beautifully created under his careful eye. And he did the same thing for Here Lies Henry at Factory Theatre. Every second directing Damien Atkins as Henry was full of pristine detail and nuance.

His performance as Sizwe in Sizwe Banzi Is Dead shone with the character’s fears and insecurity. You could see the terror glistening in M’Carthy’s eyes. This was a gripping performance in every way.

Tom Rooney.

Last year Tom Rooney played Uncle Vanya, who was hunched, bent, defeated and disappointed by life (the production will be remounted in 2024). Last winter Tom Rooney played a canine, Majnoun, ‘arms’ in front like a dog, in Fifteen Dogs (Crow’s) that was thoughtful, proud, intellectual and smart. And this past summer at the Shaw Festival he played King Magnus in The Apple Cart.  As Tom Rooney played him, King Magnus is beautifully well-mannered, self-deprecating in order to put his guest at ease, a keen listener and very astute. Magnus can parse out an argument but never plays the game of one-upmanship until and unless it is life or death. Rooney’s performances are full of nuance, subtext and truth.  

The One(s) to Watch Award

Sophia Fabiilli

Playwright. In Liars at a Funeral at the Blyth Festival, Sophia Fabiilli has written a devilishly funny, complicated farce. She has a wonderful facility with language and the jokes come naturally from people who are funny and irreverent. To ramp up the laughs, not only do people enter and exit rooms just as someone arrives that they should not see, Fabiilli does it with twins.

Lucy Hill and Justin Otto

Actors.

In Liars at a Funeral, again at the Blyth Festival, Lucy Hill plays both Dee Dee and Mia, twin sisters with different attitudes and personalities. Justin Otto plays both Quint the awkward, insecure assistant at the funeral home who is sweet on Dee Dee, and Justin Otto also plays Cam, a lively jock who loves Mia. I look forward to see more work from Lucy Hill and Justin Otto.

Zaynna Khalife

Actor. Zaynna Khalife played Fatima in The New Canadian Curling Club at Theatre Orangeville. Fatima is a newly arrived immigrant from Syria is beautifully awkward as she tries to fit in. She is also full of angst because of her brother back in Syria. Zaynna Khalife gave a confident, layered performance as Fatima that was notable for an actor so young.

Alicia Plummer

Actor. She played Sweet Pea in Sweeter and played her as pure sunlight, buoyant, always cheerful and optimistic. She can read a situation and react accordingly. And she spreads her love around, especially to The Mango Tree. Alicia Plummer’s work is true, detailed and open-hearted.

Alicia Richardson

Playwright. She wrote Sweeter produced by Cahoots Theatre. It was a wonderful play for both children and adults about a young girl named Sweet Pea who loved a Mango Tree. The language was vibrant, funny and distinctive. Alicia Richardson wrote about the importance of listening to plants as well as people and how love can change everything. Alicia Richardson is a voice that is wise, true, open-hearted and needed.

PRODUCTIONS

The Delicate and Fierce Award

Metamorphoses 2023.

Produced by Theatre Smith-Gilmour.

Michele Smith and Dean Gilmour, the creators of Theatre Smith-Gilmour, have been producing thought provoking movement-based work that challenges the status quo for 43 years and they have done it brilliantly. Metamorphoses 2023 is a perfect example of their imagination, societal concerns and moral compass.

Metamorphoses 2023 is based on Ovid’s huge poem Metamorphoses that he wrote in 8 CE. Metamorphoses 2023 has been adapted to reflect our world in 2023 by Michele Smith and Dean Gilmour.

As the play information notes: “Survival is at the core of Metamorphoses 2023, a bold and contemporary adaptation of Ovid’s epic poem, that realizes the original text’s mythic elements through mime, illusion, spoken word, silence and south Asian dance.” Their presentation is delicate. The attention to detail and the search for the truth is fierce.

It Creeps Up On You and is a Gut-Punch That Leaves You Winded Award

(This is a worthy repeat from last year (in Stratford), because it played at Crow’s Theatre in the Studio this year.

Girls & Boys

Produced by Here For Now Theatre and Crow’s Theatre.

Written by Dennis Kelly, with an astonishing performance by Fiona Mongillo and directed by Lucy Jane Atkinson. Here for Now Theatre, the scrappy little company in Stratford, Ont. has produced bracing, compelling theatre since it began producing. And the same praise can be applied to Crow’s Theatre in Toronto, headed by Artistic Director, Chris Abraham. He picked up Here for Now’s production of Girls & Boys for a Toronto run. It’s about a confident, charming woman telling us the harrowing story of how her marriage and her life unravelled slowly and irrevocably. At the centre of it was Fiona Mongillo giving one of the most composed, harrowing performances you will see in a long time.  Gripping in every single way.

Whatever the Title, It’s Powerful and Challenging Award.

Actor/writer Cliff Cardinal wrote a scathing, powerful challenging play for Crow’s Theatre about land acknowledgements, his anger at what he has to endure as an Indigenous man, dealing with ‘the woke’ and allies, among others.

The play was first titled: William Shakespeare’s As You Like it—A radical retelling by Cliff Cardinal. I disliked it because I sensed he was giving ‘the finger’ to the audience.

He took the play to The Great Canadian Theatre Company in Ottawa with a slightly different title: As You Like It—a radical retelling by Cliff Cardinal. I wondered if he had changed the play along with the title so I went to see it in Ottawa, to see what I might have missed. Cliff Cardinal was still brash, angry and challenging, but the play had been changed from top to bottom, expanded and now skewered everybody. And I changed my mind. It was terrific.

In yet another iteration, Cliff Cardinal brought the play back to Toronto for Mirvish Productions, this time entitled: The Land Acknowledgement—or As You Like It. He removed ‘a trick’ with this iteration, but it was still powerful and still challenging.

Small But Mighty (Companies) Award

The following two small companies have been consistent in producing bracing, challenging plays that reflect our world and introduces us to talent that goes from strength to strength.  

Cahoots

Cahoots is led by Tanisha Taitt, the Artistic Director, Lisa Alves, the Managing Producer and Samantha Vu, the producer.

Tanisha Taitt has an unerring eye and ear for talent and takes the time and patience to nurture and develop it. Lisa Alves and Samantha Vu work their magic to see that the playwright and director’s vision is realized.

This year Cahoots produced a fascinating production of Between a Wok and a Hot Pot by Amanda Lin and directed by Esther Jun. In the play, Amanda Lin delves into the topic of cultural identity, being ‘authentic’ and being true to one’s Asian roots, all while guiding her audience in making a delicious hot pot.

Cahoots also produced Sweeter by Alicia Richardson, ostensibly a play for young audiences, but it is applicable to all audiences. It is a beautifully created story and production for both children and adults. It’s heartfelt, perceptive and wise.  Tanisha Taitt nurtured, encouraged and worked with Alicia Richardson to develop her play. Taitt also directed it with sensitivity. The folks at Cahoots are fearless when it comes to producing needed theatre.    

The Howland Company

The company was formed 10 years ago and is an artist-led and artist-driven Toronto-based theatre company. Howland’s leadership model is made up of the following core-artists (thus proving that a collective can lead a company and produce wonderful work): Ruth Goodwin, Sam Hale, Courtney Ch’ng Lancaster, Cameron Laurie, Jareth Li, Paolo Santalucia, Hallie Seline.

The company produced the following bracing plays this year:

Prodigal written and directed by Paolo Santalucia, is about a wayward young man who has come home to his rich, privileged family, after being cut off from any inheritance. The fallout from his return is explosive. The writing is sharp, complex and challenging about: privilege, redemption, forgiveness and responsibility. The production is gripping.

Heroes of the Fourth Turning by Will Arbery and directed by Philip Akin. Friends gather at a friend’s house to celebrate a former professor who has now become the college president.  Explosive in every way. Listen, consider, ruminate on another point of view: the Christian right in America, and engage.

Hypothetical Baby, written and performed by Rachel Cairns directed by Courtney Ch’ng Lancaster.

A deeply personal and intellectually rigorous exploration of the many issues surrounding the choice to have a baby or not and all the existential, societal and ethical questions surrounding it.  

NOTE: Respectful comments are accepted on this site as long as they are accompanied by a verifiable name and a verifiable e-mail address. Posts that are slanderous, libelous or personally derogatory will not be approved.

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Hi all. On CRITICS CIRCLE, CIUT 89.5 fm tomorrow, Sat, Oct. 9 from 9 am to 10 am I’m interviewing Rob Kempson, the new Artistic Producer of the Cameco Capitol Arts Centre in Port Hope, and I’m reviewing, AS YOU LIKE IT, a radical retelling by Cliff Cardinal at Crow’s Theatre, held over until Oct. 24.

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Continuing this week….

IMPACT21

Plays until Oct. 9, 2021.

On-line and in person, in Kitchener, Ont. Hosted by MT Space.

This is a theatre-film festival of bracing, challenging work that is local (Kitchener—a lot of talent there); National (Esie Mensah, Red Sky Performance etc.); and International. The latter has work from Chile, India, Tunisia and Australia. The festival provides stories and experiences from other cultures. Always fascinating.

IMPACT21 – Festival Hub

As You Like It (by William Shakespeare) A Radical Retelling by Cliff Cardinal

Plays until Oct. 17, 2021.

In-person at the Streetcar Crowsnest, Guloien Theatre, 345 Carlaw Ave. Toronto, Ont.

From the Crow’s Theatre:

“Sweet are the uses of adversity, Which, like the toad, ugly and venomous, Wears yet a precious jewel in his head.” As You Like It William Shakespeare.

The title of William Shakespeare’s As You Like It holds a double meaning that famously teases, this is a play to please all tastes. For this world premiere, acclaimed Indigenous creator Cliff Cardinal (Stitch, Huff, and Cliff Cardinal’s CBC Special) has promised to do something just like that. His radical retelling of Shakespeare’s comedy will launch the Crow’s Theatre 2021-22 Season.

Cast will be announced at each performance.”

www.crowstheatre.com

Blindness

Plays until Oct. 24, 2021.

In person at the Princess of Wales Theatre, Toronto, Ont.

Based on the Jose Saramago novel.

Adapted by Simon Stephens

Directed by Walter Meierjohann

With the voice of Juliet Stevenson

The citizens of an unnamed city are struck with a plague of blindness, except the wife of the doctor treating many of them. The people are herded up and taken to an abandoned mental institution ‘for safekeeping.’

The production is a light and sound experience. The audience wears earphones and hears the show. The technique of hearing the sound in one ear, then the other, then around the room is astonishing. It’s as if someone is whispering in your ear. You hesitate to turn your head quickly to see them for fear of hitting them in the nose with your face.

A stunning experience.

www.mirvish.com

Friday, Oct. 8 to Oct. 30, 2021.

Fire Hall Theatre, Thousand Islands Playhouse, Gananoque.

Serving Elizabeth

Written by Marcia Johnson

Directed by Marcel Stewart

“Mercy, a Kenyan independence activist, is asked to cook for the visiting princess Elizabeth, who turns out to have a few surprises of her own. Sixty years later, the making of a TV series about the royal family causes more than a few culture clashes for a young Kenyan-Canadian production intern. A fresh, funny, and smart new play about colonialism, monarchy, and who is serving whom.”

What is particularly noteworthy here is that Marcia Johnson, who wrote the play, is also playing Mercy. Looking forward to seeing this.

www.1000islandsplayhouse.com

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