BY KIRSTEN BOLTON
FOR ARTSPRING
Named by The Globe and Mail as a Canadian Cultural Icon in 2022, Cliff Cardinal, son of iconic Canadian actress Tantoo Cardinal, is much like Trickster, a spirit who inhabits the folklore of many Indigenous cultures. A complex, multi-faceted poet, playwright and actor, Cardinal enjoys entertaining, enlightening and making mischief in equal measure.
Such is the case with his much-anticipated performance of William Shakespeare’s As You Like It: A Radical Retelling, which officially opens ArtSpring’s 2024/25 season on Tuesday, Oct. 8. It lives up to the promise of radical retelling with a secret that is starting to make its way among ticket buyers and the community.
When Cardinal as a young insightful artist from the Pine Ridge Indian Reservation in South Dakota saw the aftermath of the discovery of unmarked graves on the grounds of former residential schools, he channelled his perspective into a play that would pull the rug out from prospective audiences.
Commissioned by Toronto-based Crow’s Theatre, As You Like It: A Radical Retelling debuted September 2021 to sold-out pandemic-weary audiences, and then moved on to New York. In both places, it was positioned with great mystery and many questions. How was the acerbic, mischievous Cardinal going to take on this classic of Western theatre, one of Shakespeare’s most accessible and whimsical plays?
The reveal was, what starts as a simple Land Acknowledgement continues for the duration of the show, cleverly hijacking the Bard’s storyline for an examination of the relationship between the Indigenous and settler communities and the state of the reconciliation process this country has been attempting for the last few decades.
In the Toronto and New York shows, he repeatedly promised he’d get back to Shakespearean task at hand yet did not reveal his plan until half-way through the production when he pulled back the red curtains to an empty stage.
When ArtSpring was selected as one of six B.C. arts venues to stage the show, Cardinal offered this “ruse” version or a version that was up front about the subject matter. Executive and artistic direction Howard Jang was surprised he was the only one to have booked the original “ruse” performance, as he observed first hand the audience impact when he attended the Toronto and New York shows.
After the 2024/25 season brochures had gone to print with ambiguous language describing As You Like It: A Radical Retelling, Jang received a call from Cardinal asking if he could do the non-ruse direct version called As You Like It, or Land Acknowledge instead. The content and structure differ enough that preparing two different productions would be very difficult under the timeline, as Cardinal also researches and weaves local Indigenous history and references into each show.
Jang made the decision to respect the artist’s request and hopes existing ticket holders who may have assumed they were coming to see a Shakespearean play now come and experience this powerful production with eyes wide open.
Replacing the rom-com-esque tone of Shakespeare’s work, this As You Like It doesn’t shy away from more serious issues, like the ongoing influence that colonization has had and the ways stereotypes affect our perceptions.
One topic that’s touched upon is Cardinal’s thoughts on the land acknowledgements positioned at the beginning of live performances, meetings and social events. Cardinal explores what it is about these acknowledgements doesn’t sit right with him in a way that manages to be darkly funny and eye-opening.
Cardinal manages to cover a lot of ground and bring important conversations to the table; the most poignant seeming to be that, simply, we all need to treat each other a lot better. Exulting in often bawdy humour, difficult subject matter and raw emotion, As You Like It was the recipient of the prestigious Governor General’s Literary Award for Drama and called “a liberating night at the theatre; brutally funny and honest” by The Globe and Mail.
The show is for audiences 14+. For Métis and Indigenous community members, seats are available at $15 Angel pricing while they last.