Up next at the Arts Club is Hardline Productions’ Redpatch. The play shares an Indigenous perspective of Canada’s involvement in WW1 through the eyes of a young soldier (Raes Calvert) from the Nuu-chah-nulth nation of Vancouver Island. Shifting between the soldier’s childhood home and the battlefields of France, this new play uses dance, myth, and mask to tell both a universal and a personal tale.
Close to four thousand Indigenous men and women served in the Canadian Forces during the Great War, an extraordinary number given the limited civil rights accorded to them at the time. Canadian federal policy offered post-war benefits to Indigenous veterans, but many had given up their status in order to enlist and were denied these benefits upon their return to Canada. By the end of the war, several Indigenous soldiers had achieved near legendary status as scouts, trench-raiders, and snipers, drawing on their pre-wartime experience in hunting and wilderness survival.
Playwrights Raes Calvert and Sean Harris Oliver said, “With the hope of drawing attention to this obscure part of our national history, we are extremely proud to contribute Redpatch to Canada’s theatre canon. And we are thrilled that we are able to present a full cast of Indigenous actors for this production. This cast includes representation from the Acadian, Cree, Denesuliné, Kluane, Métis, Nuu-chah-nulth, and Stoney Nakoda nations.”
In 2017, Redpatch garnered five Jessie Award nominations for Hardline Productions, including Outstanding Performance by an Actor in a Lead Role (Raes Calvert), Outstanding Direction (Sean Harris Oliver and Raes Calvert), and Outstanding Production of a Play. Hardline Productions is the Arts Club’s 2018–2019 Company in Residence.
March 7–31, 2019
Goldcorp Stage at the BMO Theatre Centre
SHOWTIMES
Tue–Thu at 7:30 PM, Fri & Sat at 8 PM, Wed at 1:30 PM, and Sat & Sun at 2 PM
Tickets from $29 at artsclub.com or the Arts Club Box Office at 604.687.1644
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