Theatre
DEATH OF A CHIEF
BY Gord McLaughlin March 07, 2008 14:03
DEATH OF A CHIEF
Featuring Monique Mojica, Keith Barker, Michelle St John. Written by William Shakespeare. Adapted and directed by Yvette Nolan and Kennedy C MacKinnon. Presented by Native Earth Performing Arts. To Mar 16, Tue-Sat 8pm; Sun 2:30pm. $18.50-$25.50; Sun PWYC. Buddies in Bad Times Theatre, 12 Alexander. 416-975-8555. www.nativeearth.ca.
Shakespeare purists will shriek at the audacity of Native Earth Performing Arts, but more adventurous fans will delight in the many rewards of this compelling if not quite cohesive production. The company sets Julius Caesar on a Canadian reserve, toys with the text, strips it down to 90 minutes and casts women in some male roles.
Cassius (Michelle St. John) and other scheming senators plot to assassinate popular, self-deifying Caesar (Monique Mojica), and they enlist his friend Brutus (Keith Barker) to mask their own ambition.
The lack of classical training hinders some actors and makes for uneven styles. That said. Jani Lauzon delivers Marc Antony’s famous oratory with passion and veracity, driving it home with a reference to Canada as the scene of coming violence. It’s a key moment.
St. John and Barker are up to the task of playing central characters Cassius and Brutus, and their scenes together are among the best. Mojica brings a lit-from-within majesty to Caesar.
The staging by director/adaptors Yvette Nolan and Kennedy C. MacKinnon is imaginative and effective, making much out of little. The same goes for Camellia Koo’s spare and evocative set.
While tampering with the Bard is often frivolous, there is an organic logic to this particular transplant. What would be great is a new play that tackles native politics head on, not through the universality of Shakespeare but through the specific truths of Canada’s ailing reserves and cross-cultural clashes.
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