It is long, the road from Uashat, an Innu reserve on the North Shore, to the Quartier des spectacles in Montreal. But the distance is not only geographical; it is above all historical.
Thursday evening, during the premiere of Manikanetish, the theatrical adaptation of Naomi Fontaine’s second novel, a large number of Aboriginal spectators set foot at Place des Arts for the very first time. They came to applaud an entirely Aboriginal cast, from the Innu and Mi’kmaq nations, the majority of whom made their professional debut at Duceppe.
Despite its imperfections, its clumsiness and the lack of experience of the performers, this show is a rare artistic object. Unconventional. A proposal overflowing with soul and humanity. For nearly 90 minutes, Manikanetish helps us to better understand the culture of young Innu. By showing us their strengths and their weaknesses, their dramas and their joys, their sorrows and their desires. To better expose the immense pride that inhabits them.
Inspired by her own experience, Naomi Fontaine’s play tells the story of a 24-year-old teacher who lands a job at a secondary school in Uashat (the author joined the cast 12 days before the premiere! ). We see the young teacher returning to her community, 15 years after having left it. She arrives in the classroom with her baccalaureate and her big clogs. The first weeks are very painful. Students resist him. She tries to impose a rigid discipline, without taking into account the reality of the Innu reserve. Then, little by little, she will approach them. Starting by listening to them… and trusting them.
The challenge of cid
PHOTO DANNY TAILLON, PROVIDED BY DUCEPPE
For nearly 90 minutes, Manikanetish helps us to better understand the culture of young Innu. By showing us their strengths and their weaknesses, their dramas and their joys, their sorrows and their desires. To better expose the immense pride that inhabits them.
In the middle of the school year, the school principal asks the teacher to put on a play with her group. The teacher offers her students a classic, and not the least: The Cid. The students are first put off by the convoluted plot, the Alexandrians of Corneille’s tragi-comedy. However, this choice is not innocent. The Cid is a work that speaks of love and honor. Two things that the people of the First Nations have not, let’s say, received much from since the conquest of their territories…
” We [les Innus] have been analyzed for a long time, without anyone ever bothering to get to know us,” said the author in an interview. Giving them the floor to make their story known, without outside judgment, is the wish at the heart of this work mixing narration and fiction. Driven by the skilful staging of Jean-Simon Traversy, co-artistic director at Duceppe.
If God exists…
In the middle of the performance, after the announcement of the suicide of a teenager from the reserve, one of the students asks his teacher if he can pray in the class… She accepts immediately. The characters then form a circle to recite a prayer in Innu. Without understanding the language, we recognize their prayer. This call to God sounds like a sweet song. Both comforting and captivating. A music that went up the river, from Sept-Îles to Place des Arts, taking with it its soulful feeling. The song of love and pride of the First Nations, long forgotten, neglected.
Fortunately, we can finally hear them on the stage of a major theater in Quebec. If theater does not change the world, it certainly has the capacity to bring communities together. This is the successful bet of this audacious and memorable production.
Manikanetish
Based on the novel by Naomi Fontaine. Adapted by Julie-Anne Ranger-Beauregard and Naomi Fontaine. Director: Jean-Simon Traversy.
Jean Duceppe TheaterUntil April 8