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Culture Stage

Tara Beagan

FREE AS INJUNS by Tara Beagan, directed by Ruth Madoc-Jones, with James Cade, Lisa Codrington, Jerry Franken, John Ng, Yvette Nolan, PJ Prudat and Ash Knight. Presented by Native Earth Performing Arts at Buddies in Bad Times (12 Alexander). Opens tonight (March 1) and runs to March 18, Tuesday-Saturday 8 pm, matinee Sunday 2:30 pm. Pwyc-$20. 416-975-8555. See listing.


For playwright Tara Beagan, the only art that’s worthwhile is at some level political.

The head of Native Earth Performing Arts, Beagan writes plays that touch both the heart and the mind. Her latest, free as injuns, uses Eugene O’Neill’s Desire Under The Elms as a springboard to look at blood ties, legacy and our attitude toward the land.

In the original play, elderly New England farmer Ephraim Cabot marries a young woman who then has an affair and a child with the youngest of his three sons.

“I was captivated by the relationships and the divide-and-conquer attitude toward the land,” remembers Beagan, whose background is Nlaka’pamux (Thompson River Salish) and Irish Canadian. Director Ruth Madoc-Jones, her collaborator on Beagan’s Dreary And Izzy, introduced her to the play.

“As a woman of native descent, I see the land as parallel to its native people. In free as injuns, I reimagine the blueprint of O’Neill’s script in terms of the inherent values of indigenous tradition.”

Thus Cabot is Caucasian, while both his youngest son and new wife, Even and Be, are of mixed First Nation and Caucasian blood.

“While other characters see the land as something to defeat, Even has a different relationship to it through his mother – his father’s influence is strong but his mother’s attitude is in his marrow. At the start of the play he can’t fully recognize those native ties. He’s like a stomping, snorting, bucking horse, torn up by the battling sides of his heritage.

“Be recognizes the strength of Even’s aboriginal background and teaches him that being of mixed blood can be a tremendous blessing as well as a means to help bridge his two worlds.

“She also shows that he can’t self-actualize until he discovers his relationship to the land.”

The idea of heritage is central to the play in other ways, too. Cabot is the only Caucasian character one of his other sons is part Asian, the other part Southeast Asian. The prostitute and Even’s mother, present only as voices, are black and mixed native and European, respectively. The latter is played by Yvette Nolan, Beagan’s mentor and predecessor at Native Earth.

Download associated audio clip.

The idea of mixed blood is also linked to Beagan’s turning the audience into the all-important land, which Even looks across and admires for its beauty and wonder. Beagan believes that the diversity of people in the theatre, a microcosm of Canada, reflects an untapped potential in our society.

“Every person now walking on Canadian soil is part of our indigenous trails. No one is able to keep our stories separate, for they necessarily overlap.”

Interview Clip

Adapting theatre classics with an eye to indigenous culture:

Download associated audio clip.

jonkap@nowtoronto.com

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