denelicious - the personal blog of Tenille Campbell: stories in action

I went to watch a play last night. It was my first time doing so in Vancouver and I stood in the crowd, in my jeans and sweater, watching a diverse crowd of people, feeling like an outsider but enjoying it anyways. There were ladies in leather jackets with Haida art stitched on it, men in blue jeans and sports jackets. Diamond and gold glittered on the necks of women and sparkly earring shined on young women. The scent of dark coffee, wine and the ocean was in the air as the crowd talked, chatted and hugged one another.

Anticipation.

My new friend Meegwun is an actor in the play "Beyond Eden" and had invited Allen and I, along with Brittany and her boyfriend, to see the opening night. As soon as the curtain lifted, I was drawn in.

The play has already had a few reviews (linked here and here) but basically this is the story line:

"...anthropologist Lewis Wilson, who journeys to the Haida village of Ninstints in an attempt to save a set of waterlogged, beetle-infested totem poles. Inspired by the 1957 expedition made by local anthropologists and the legendary Haida artist Bill Reid to "save" totem poles from their ancestral island home and preserve them in an urban museum."
{source: the globe and mail}

The music, the action, the actors. All very skilled, all deeply embedded in their characters. The son Jack (Andrew Kushnir) was a knock-out. He was hilarious in his comedic timing and he had the jerky, awkward personality of a love-sick teenager down pat. I loved watching him.

The storyline of taking totem poles down and putting them in a museum was heart-wrenching. I don't think this was fully explored enough. It was said in the play that the Chiefs and community had given permission to cut them down (after being given $50 a pole...) but I wanted to see how a community could come to a decision to cut down their artifacts and history. That's what was compelling to me. I wanted to see this meeting and how it affected the community.

Some of the subplots weren't interesting or relevant at all - like the relationship problems between the main lead Lewis (John Mann) and his wife, Sal (Jennifer Lines). The love song sang between them (something about warmth of hand and ribbons of love...yeah) was . . . boring. The relationship wasn't a driving force to the play, nor did it show why Lewis so so hell-bent on "saving" these poles. It distracted from the main story, not enhanced it.

The half-breed Max (Cameron MacDuffee) was another storyline that could have been sooo much more. He was hired on as a photographer to document the expedition and he was teased and ridiculed by the two Haida travel guides Victor (Tracey Olsen) and Joe (Telly James). They knew his status and both encouraged him to understand his roots (encouraging him to visit his mother's people) and called him out for his actions against the poles (implying that he got paid more as the photographer than the band did for their culture). But his character was flat, not delved into, and at the end he encouraged them to cut the poles down and walks off hand-in-hand with a Haida ghost-girl - implying that the poles are going to be his way into understanding his culture and that he needed them and is now on the path to reclaim his identity...yeah.

The Watchman (Tom Jackson) was damn good. I was prepared to hate him (I don't know why) and he made the character come to life. His voice, his stature, his mischievous nature. All a part of the Watchman. When he spoke, the entire audience leaned in. When he teased, the audience broke out into laughter. It was like he was eating up the good energy of the place and giving us more and more. I loved it sooo much.

Should the poles have been cut down? Should they be in museums? Should they have been allowed to stay and decay into earth and complete the cycle?

I don't have the answers but this play did make me think.

On a less serious note, here are some pics from the night.