Posted at 3:13 p.m.
The Wabush Pen by Louis-Karl Picard-Sioui is a modern tale set in the fictional community of Kitchike. Pierre Wabush is the missing son of a missing father and an alcoholic mother. He believes neither in native traditions nor in himself and struggles with painful memories that prevent him from seeing clearly in his relationships.
Stuck in the legend of a father, police chief, who disappeared without a trace, the handsome Pierre prefers to drink and run the somersault than to face the harsh reality of life on a reserve. Frustrated, he denounces both the embezzlement of the band council and the futile clan wars between the various families of the community. A lucid male, but also passive-aggressive.
The story takes place, in fact, in his own head. Under the influence of adulterated alcohol and a trickster — a mythical immortal character of indigenous cultures who amuses himself at the expense of the living – Wabush struggles to understand the obvious, that is to say that he has become the pariah of his community. Of flashback in flashbackwe will eventually glimpse his true nature and that of the members of his entourage, his mother, his friends and his mistresses.
The very tangled narrative threads at the start of the show gradually unravel towards the end. It takes some time before getting caught up in this surreal Russian doll game that oscillates between the strangeness of the situations and the very real memories of the protagonist. Pierre Wabush and spectators, same fight!
Using video, an elaborate scenic device and a soundtrack full of mystery, the staging by Daniel Brière and Dave Jenniss maintains the suspense from beginning to end. The dialogues written by Louis-Karl Picard-Sioui distill a caustic humor where elements of History intervene, such as the Oka crisis and the difficult childhood of so many Aboriginal children in contact with systemic racism.
The enclosure of the title can thus refer as much to the confused brain of the main character as to a frozen socio-political context in which the First Nations are maintained.
The playful tone and the dynamism of the whole are well carried by a mainly indigenous cast. Charles Bender offers a Pierre Wabush as brilliant as disconcerted by what is happening to him. His old friend Noah, the tricksteris played by a tasty Dave Jenniss, and the mother by the always fair Marie-Josée Bastien.
Joanie Guérin is hilarious in the role of a narrator, dressed in New France fashion, and in her imitation of Jean-Luc Mongrain, while René Rousseau and Émily Séguin interpret the other characters with talent.
This co-production of the Nouveau Théâtre Expérimental and the Ondinnok company, created 37 years ago, once again opens our eyes and hearts to the undeniable qualities of Indigenous theater as well as its relevance at a time when stereotypes unfortunately continue to circulate in towards them in our society.
The Wabush Pen
By Louis-Karl Picard-Sioui, directed by Daniel Brière and Dave Jenniss. With Marie-Josée Bastien, Charles Bender, Joanie Guérin, Dave Jenniss, René Rousseau and Émily Séguin.
At Free Space.Until October 29.