Meet the Playwright session delights audience with light-hearted Q and A period

By Rick Garrick

THUNDER BAY — Cottagers and Indians actor Herbie Barnes joined playwright Drew Hayden Taylor to answer a question about pointing with one’s lips during the Meet the Playwright session on Mar. 15 at Magnus Theatre in Thunder Bay. The one-act play was scheduled for Mar. 13-28, but the remaining performances were cancelled on Mar. 16 due to rising concerns about the coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19).

“I take that directly from my uncle,” Barnes says about pointing with his lips in the play. “He always had a cigarette in his mouth, so that [pointing with his lips] is what he would do. And he would blow the ash off of there and then he would take that and light the other [cigarette] up. He was a chain smoker.”

Taylor says the Cree out west “tend to point a lot with their lips.”

“Depending on where you are, they will point with their lower lip or both lips,” Taylor says.

Taylor says the play was based on the story of James Whetung, who planted and harvested manomin (wild rice) in the Kawartha Lakes region of central Ontario.

“I shortened this up into one or two years, but he was doing it for 10-15 years,” Taylor says. “He’s barely making it above the poverty line — he’s doing this for food sovereignty and because of diabetes.”

Taylor’s play premiered in 2018 at the Tarragon Theatre in Toronto. The Magnus Theatre production is part of a tour that includes runs in Ottawa and Saint John, New Brunswick.

“This is about the fourth or fifth envisioning of the script and I think it is just absolutely wonderful,” Taylor says. “I’ve worked with Herbie on productions for 30 years and he just keeps on getting better and better.”

Barnes says his character feels he has the inherent right to reinstate the manomin back into the lakes.

“I’ve worked with Drew now for 30 years,” Barnes says. “His first play was my first play. Drew is a great writer who tells incredible stories. They are tough because they’ve got meaning in behind them.”

Taylor says the actors who play the cottager always bring a different feel to the play.

“In this version, she was a lot more emotional towards the end, which I thought was a very interesting take on the character,” Taylor says.

Philippa Domville, who plays the cottager, says her character revealed some of her “racism and her white privilege” when triggered in the play.

“I love that and it always has to come from a truthful place out of passion and ultimately weirdly enough out of her love for the land,” Domville says. “The play is really a battle for land.”

Richard Rose, director of the play, says the play is about who owns the water and who has a right to the water.

“So who gets access to the water, who gets to control the water, who gets to grow wild rice on the water and who doesn’t,” Rose says. “So it’s funny, charming, but also the debate of our times about who owns what.”

Thom Currie, artistic director at Magnus Theatre, says the play was cancelled over concerns for the health and safety of the community due to COVID-19.

“Cancelling the show and suspending the season has been a very difficult decision to make, but it’s the right decision at this time,” Currie says. “It’s what’s best for our patrons, staff and community at large.”

The play’s set design was by Robin Fisher, costume design by Sage Paul, lighting design by Nick Andison and sound design by Beau Dixon.