Cliff Cardinal
Autor de Huff & Stitch
Obras de Cliff Cardinal
Etiquetado
Conocimiento común
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Miembros
Reseñas
The Land Acknowledgement
Review of the Playwrights Canada Press paperback edition (May 2023).
The reveal for As You Like It: A Radical Retelling probably only worked on opening night when the play premiered at Crow's Theatre, Toronto in 2021. First night reviews let the cat out of the bag. This was not a one-man performance / adaptation of Shakespeare's comedy. It was instead a 90 minute Land Acknowledgement performed by author Cliff Cardinal in what could be described as a stand-up routine. It starts off pretty light, but gets quite dark by the end when Cardinal excoriates the government and churches who perpetuated the residential school system (1870-1997) in Canada which removed indigenous children from their parents and placed them in often abusive and even murderous environments with the aim of destroying their native culture.
I don't know how extensively Land Acknowledgements are made throughout the rest of North America, but in Canada it has become a preliminary fixture of all arts and theatrical performances, where the specific indigenous tribal nations and treaty lands related to the location of the performance are read out prior to the start. Cardinal spares no one in his assessments and questions the sincerity of much of what has often become a token speech which is rushed through.
When the play was restaged in early 2023 by Mirvish Theatres in Toronto, the promotional material openly acknowledged the real theme of the evening.
See poster at https://www.mirvish.com/de/cache/modules_hero/1430/hr_1800x1200_tla-2022-returns...
Promotional poster for the May 2023 restaging of “As You Like It: A Radical Retelling”. Image sourced from Mirvish Theatres.
I wanted to read As You Like It: A Radical Retelling as I was curious about how much of the seemingly improvised banter by Cliff Cardinal was scripted. It was actually quite a surprising amount, aside from the occasional interaction he had with audience members which was obviously spontaneous.
It is hard for me to separate the rating for the playscript from the performance that I saw. This was a thoughtful and provocative theatrical experience which hopefully will have additional revivals in the future.… (más)
Review of the Playwrights Canada Press paperback edition (May 2023).
This is the show. The land acknowledgement is your show.
I lied to you.
I lied to you and took your money.
How's it feel?
Now you know what it's like to be Indian ... for a day.
If anyone feels duped and disrespected, the bard's sacred texts didn't ring out again tonight, by all means, you can walk out this door and you can get your money back.
The reveal for As You Like It: A Radical Retelling probably only worked on opening night when the play premiered at Crow's Theatre, Toronto in 2021. First night reviews let the cat out of the bag. This was not a one-man performance / adaptation of Shakespeare's comedy. It was instead a 90 minute Land Acknowledgement performed by author Cliff Cardinal in what could be described as a stand-up routine. It starts off pretty light, but gets quite dark by the end when Cardinal excoriates the government and churches who perpetuated the residential school system (1870-1997) in Canada which removed indigenous children from their parents and placed them in often abusive and even murderous environments with the aim of destroying their native culture.
I don't know how extensively Land Acknowledgements are made throughout the rest of North America, but in Canada it has become a preliminary fixture of all arts and theatrical performances, where the specific indigenous tribal nations and treaty lands related to the location of the performance are read out prior to the start. Cardinal spares no one in his assessments and questions the sincerity of much of what has often become a token speech which is rushed through.
When the play was restaged in early 2023 by Mirvish Theatres in Toronto, the promotional material openly acknowledged the real theme of the evening.
See poster at https://www.mirvish.com/de/cache/modules_hero/1430/hr_1800x1200_tla-2022-returns...
Promotional poster for the May 2023 restaging of “As You Like It: A Radical Retelling”. Image sourced from Mirvish Theatres.
I wanted to read As You Like It: A Radical Retelling as I was curious about how much of the seemingly improvised banter by Cliff Cardinal was scripted. It was actually quite a surprising amount, aside from the occasional interaction he had with audience members which was obviously spontaneous.
It is hard for me to separate the rating for the playscript from the performance that I saw. This was a thoughtful and provocative theatrical experience which hopefully will have additional revivals in the future.… (más)
Premios
Estadísticas
- Obras
- 3
- Miembros
- 13
- Popularidad
- #774,335
- Valoración
- 5.0
- Reseñas
- 2
- ISBNs
- 8
Review of the Playwrights Canada Press paperback edition (October 19, 2017)
Cliff Cardinal's Huff begins with a staged suicide attempt. The stage lights come up as a wrist-bound Cardinal staggers onto the stage with a plastic bag duct-taped around his head. It is clearly evident from his breathing that the seal around his neck is airtight. There doesn't appear to be any safety net (the bound wrists are behind his back) and only the intervention of an audience member (after a cry of desperation) will save the performer. How do you follow that?
Huff mostly follows the saga of three brothers Charlie, Wind and Huff as they negotiate life on a Native Reserve seeking relief from abuse and violence at home and at a residential school. This 'relief' often involves solvent and alcohol abuse. The theme of an often malevalent Trickster character from indigenous mythology runs throughout the play as things take turns for the worse at many stages. This theatrical experience is traumatic and draining and yet exhilarating and euphoric at times. This is maybe not least because the performer and the audience all survive at the end, although not all of the characters portrayed.
See photograph at https://scontent-ord5-2.xx.fbcdn.net/v/t39.30808-6/428280736_797831509051780_397...
"If you're a little upset, wait 'till you see what happens next." Cliff Cardinal takes a moment during a performance of "Huff" before moving on to the next vignette. Photo sourced from The Grand Theatre, London, Ontario.
Huff is a tour-de-force solo performance with playwright/actor Cliff Cardinal enacting over 20+ roles during its 70 minute time frame. My favourite bit was the portrayal of a vicious stink-throwing skunk who is stumbled upon by the brothers as they escape from an accidental abandoned house arson.
I've now seen Cardinal in 3 different one-man performances of his plays in the past year. I find it hard to separate the staging from the playscripts. You can read my review of The Land Acknowledgement aka William Shakespeare’s As You Like It: A Radical Retelling here. The most recent work, (Everyone I Love Has) A Terrible Fate (Befall Them) (premiered late 2023) is not yet published, but you can read a theatrical review here.
Trivia and Links
Cliff Cardinal provides a background interview for his most recent performances of Huff at the Grand Theatre in London, Ontario, Canada which you can watch here.
The next performances of Huff will be at Crow's Theatre, Toronto, Canada in April 2024. Further information and tickets are available here.… (más)