Interactive theatre challenges audience to step into the conversation on reconciliation
Sometimes, a conversation just goes wrong. Despite the best of intentions, emotions can get in the way, or an innocent comment can miss the mark.
But what if you could start over. Walk it back, and workshop the communication. Change the outcome and make it right.
That's the premise of interactive theatre performance "šxʷʔam̓ət" (pronounced sh-whom-et).
The play's name means "home" in hən̓q̓əmin̓əm̓, a dialect from the Coast Salish people in B.C.
'Courage to acknowledge the darkness'
The production, performed by an Indigenous and non-Indigenous cast, explores what reconciliation really means by challenging the actors and audience to engage in a powerful way.
"Reconciliation to me now is courage to acknowledge the darkness which has created this country, the courage to say we want to change and then to do the action of change," actor Nayden Palosaari, who portrays Vincent, told CBC, shortly before a performance at MacEwan Hall at the University of Calgary on Saturday.
In the first half of the play, the characters get into situations that build to a point of crisis. Then, in the second half, the audience is given opportunities to step in, replace characters, and use their own insights and lived experiences to try and move past barriers.
"This is a safe place, you can come, see characters make bad choices, and in the second part, come and try your ideas out about how to have healthier relationships. Where else do we have that kind of opportunity?" said Rev. Meg Roberts, who plays Rev. Sarah.
Roberts said the biggest thing she's learned while touring with the production is the importance of listening as a non-Indigenous person.
"I can't expect Indigenous people to teach me," she said.
That was a message the play's artistic director David Diamond echoed.
"There's the perception that reconciliation is the task of Indigenous people, and of course, it isn't. It's our task, and we have a lot of work to do. Some of that is taking responsibility for doing the work we have to do and not waiting to be educated," Diamond said.
The cast said that the performance has felt especially vital in the wake of the verdict that saw a white farmer, Gerald Stanley, acquitted in the death of Colten Boushie, a 22-year-old Cree man from Red Pheasant First Nation.
The company held a moment of silence on the night the verdict came through.
"It's brutal. It's unfortunate that it occurred," said Palosaari.
"The more and more the truths and village secrets that Canada has kept as a country become shown through media and social media … you can't make reconciliation if you're just going to keep hiding stuff."
Roberts said she grew up near Saskatoon, and her grandparents farmed near where Boushie was shot dead.
When she attended seminary school, she said she saw colleagues struggling with how they could be people of faith with all of the history that entailed in Canada with the residential school system.
For her, acting in the play is a way to try and reconcile those challenges and "recognize the baggage that's there."
Despite the weight of the subject matter, Diamond said "people shouldn't be afraid of coming."
"The events sound like they're heavy but they're actually a lot of fun. There's a lot of laughter," he said.
More than just theatre
And, he said audience members will have the opportunity to take part in something that's more than just a piece of theatre.
"It means having the courage to imagine and work towards a Canada that is transformed in ways we can't imagine right now," he said.
Šxʷʔam̓ət has a second Calgary performance at 7:30 p.m. on Sunday, at University of Calgary's MacEwan Hall, before it heads west to B.C. Tickets are $15, and are available online.
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