Nipissing First Nation actor captivates audience

By Rick Garrick

TORONTO — Nipissing First Nation’s Jonathon LeRose has enjoyed his role as Hamish in Shakespeare in Action’s Summer 2023 theatrical production of otîhêw, which ran from Aug. 4-20 at Little Avenue Memorial Park in Toronto.

A Cree-Métis re-imagining of Shakespeare’s Othello, the play by PJ Prudat is set in a northwestern factory fort along the Saskatchewan River in 1816, the year of no summer due to a volcanic eruption in Indonesia.

“In Othello, Iago is known as the very quintessential villain and Hamish is kind of our interpretation of him in this Cree-Métis world,” LeRose says. “So I get to play the bad guy, which is fun. The play is going very well, people are really enjoying it, the story is fun and we’ve managed to make it nice and concise to follow.”

LeRose says the story of the play follows the matriarch of the community, otîhêw, who is dealing with the year with no summer.

“Then there is my character, Hamish, who is fed up with how the colony is being run,” LeRose says.

LeRose says the play was done outdoors so they were at the mercy of the elements.

“You have cars honking,” LeRose says. “At one time, I was doing the show and squirrels were fighting on the tree. It happened to be at the point where I was talking about dogs fighting, so it worked very beautifully.”

LeRose says he has been an actor since he was a child.

“I’ve always wanted to be an actor,” LeRose says. “I would put on shows for my family when I was a little kid.”

LeRose says he studied theatre at York University and got his first professional gig in 2016 on a CBS show called Salvation.

“Then I got a role in a very popular Canadian comedy, Letterkenny, and then I’ve just been kind of working in film and television ever since,” LeRose says. “Last year, I did my first theatre show in I think six years, and I’m very happy that I’ve kind of rediscovered my love for theatre. There’s nothing like it, it’s super fun.”

The play’s director, Lisa Nasson, a graduate of Stratford’s Birmingham Conservatory and a Mi’kmaq citizen from Millbrook in Nova Scotia, says the play features Indigenous storytelling through Shakespearean fiction.

“This play reveals Indigenous heartache and colonial betrayal through the lens of a strong Indigenous woman,” Nasson says. “otîhêw explores truths about the fur trade era, and demonstrates how love, female leadership, care for water, and preservation of culture can mend a broken colonial influence and a broken sky.”

Brefny Caribou, whose family is from Pukatawagan in northern Manitoba, is enjoying her role as Birdie in the play.

“She is an advisor to the main character, otîhêw, and she is also the wife of the other main character, Hamish, who is otîhêw’s brother,” Caribou says. “She has kind of a special relationship to both of them and feels kind of caught between the two of them.”

Caribou says doing outdoor theatre is “quite incredible.”

“I have a line that talks about the wind singing through the boughs of the trees and I look up and I see wind singing in the boughs of the trees,” Caribou says. “It’s pretty magical.”

Caribou says she has always loved performing, noting that she studied theatre at Concordia University and did her Master’s in Acting at York University.

“Ever since then, I’ve just been taking contracts,” Caribou says. “I’ve learned a lot about a lot of different forms and styles of theatre. I also have a little bit of TV experience, which has been very fun.”

Additional information is available online at: www.shakespeareinaction.org/otihew/.