1939 – REVIEW OF 2024 CANADIAN STAGE PRODUCTION AT BERKELEY ST. THEATRE

Reviewed by James Karas 

Canada’s residential schools constitute one of the most disgraceful chapters in our history. Any recitation of the fundamental aims of the schools and their cruel existence and procedures sends shivers down your spine. And that is before you reach the grotesque abuses suffered by the children in the hands of Catholic priests and Anglican ministers.

1939 is a play by Joni Lauzon and Kaitlyn Riordan, now playing at the Berkeley St. Theatre in Toronto, that is set in an Indian Anglican Residential School in which the appalling system starts as mere background. The ostensible story is about King George VI and Queen Elizabeth visiting the school in 1939, before the outbreak of World War II.

The school decides to put on a play by Shakespeare, All’s Well that Ends Well, to showcase the school, impress the royals and help with raising funds for the crumbling institution. 

The play has eight characters, 5 students and three adults. The students come from different tribes but as far as anyone is concerned, they are Indian and all Indians are the same. The students are Susan Blackbird (Brefny Caribou), Cree, Evelyne Rice (Merewyn Comeau), Mohawk, Beth Summers (Grace Lamarche), Ojibwe, Jean Delorme (John Wamsley), Algonquin Metis, and Joseph Summers (Richard Comeau), Ojibwe, a former student.

The adults are Sian, Ap Darfydd (Catherine Fitch), the English teacher who is bent on producing her vision of All’s Well with English accents and proper pronunciation of iambic pentameters. Callum Williams (Nathan Howe) an Anglican priest who is desperate to get a parish of his own and Madge Macbeth (Madge Lisman), a journalist who writes about an Indian production of a Shakespeare’s play. The word “Indian” has all but ceased to be used to describe Canada’s natives but the law controlling their lives was The Indian Act and the ministry in charge of it was the Ministry of Indian Affairs. I use the word Indian as it is used in 1939 and continued to be used for decades after that.

L-R: Richard Comeau, Merewyn Comeau, Brefny Caribou, 

Nathan Howe, John Wamsley, Grace Lamarche, Catherine Fitch.

Miss Ap Dafydd raises enthusiasm as she assigns the roles to the students and starts rehearsing Shakespeare. Her heart was probably in the right place and she was following government policy of raising Indian children with the Indian removed from them.

Father Williams is played as clown, overacting horribly and running around as if he were in a French farce. Unfortunately, he did not evoke too many laughs. He got a better reaction with his habitual flatulence when under pressure but that is one of the lowest forms of humour

Madge Macbeth was an efficient journalist who wanted to help the school raise funds. Her ideas?  How about an Indian Shakespeare, with feathers, long hair and all the paraphernalia of Indians (never mind the fact that each tribe has its own traditions and clothes.) The clothes are made by a women’s organization that does not have a clue about Indian dress and they make whatever they consider “Indian.” It is an abomination, of course.

The students are hopeless in reading Shakespeare let alone tackling his iambic pentameters. For the pentameters they are told to pretend they are riding a horse. They know what it is like being on a horse but not how to make sense of Shakespeare’s meter. This should be hilarious but it barely registered with the opening night audience. All the actors playing the roles of students are indigenous, as Lauzon demands in any production of her play. She has the right do that but in this production the result was not entirely successful. The actors sounded uneasy when speaking their lines and only came to life when they realized that the parts they play have parallels to their situation. They rebelled against what Miss Dafydd was giving them and discarded their ridiculous “Indian” costumes designed by the white ladies’ association. They made All’s Well an Indian play.

By the time of the arrival of the costumes, we realized that the play was not to impress King George in 1939 but to give us a punch in the stomach and remind us of what the residential schools did to indigenous children. What I missed was making us roar with laughter at the butchering of Shakespeare’s language, the rebellion against the ridiculous play in the hands of indigenous students who find their own meaning. The play has all the elements of hilarity and serious drama. This production did not do justice to the hilarity.

The set designed by Joanna Yu consisted of three large blackboards on which messages were written and quickly erased – like the culture and background (and much more) of the children that were forced to attend them. Chairs and tables to represent classrooms are appropriate parts of the set.

For the record, Co-author Jani Lauzon also directed this production of the play which premiered in 2022 at the Stratford Festival.       
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1939 by Jani Lauzon and Kaitlyn Riordan opened on September 19 and continues until October 12, 2024, at the Berkeley St. Theatre, 26 Berkeley St.  Toronto, Ont. https://www.canadianstage.com/

James Karas is the Senior Editor, Culture, of The Greek Press