FORMER RIDER HITS STAGE
Play ponders racial strife, healing
Matt Dominguez can teach his two boys a lot of things.
He can teach them how to catch a touchdown pass, outmanoeuvre a cornerback and charge into the end zone. He can tell them what it’s like to win a Grey Cup.
But he was afraid he’d have less and less to teach his older son, Matthew Jr., whom he describes as “a theatre kid.”
“He loves it,” Dominguez said. “So I think, in order to be a dad, you step out of some of the things you’re comfortable in. For me, this is one of them.”
Dominguez, a wide receiver with the Saskatchewan Roughriders from 2003 to 2008, has already played brief roles in Corner Gas and a staging of The Wizard of Oz. Now he’s taking on a far more demanding part in Theatre Saskatchewan’s production of Best of Enemies, opening this week in Regina. It’s a play that punches hard on heavy issues of race, class and one man’s fight with his darkest demons.
According to director Amanda Schenstead, Dominguez won’t be the only one to step outside his comfort zone. The audience will have to join him. The play, she said, will be “tough to watch.”
Best of Enemies tells the true story of C.P. Ellis, a former Exalted Cyclops of the Durham Ku Klux Klan, and his improbable friendship with an equally embittered black activist, Anne Atwater.
John Chaput plays Ellis. He comes on stage a man full of hate, celebrating the death of Dr. Martin Luther King and wishing he’d had the pleasure of firing the shot himself.
“The first act is extremely dark and intense and hostile,” said Chaput. “Even I didn’t appreciate the depth of it and how deep the hatred of C.P. Ellis ran until we got thoroughly into rehearsal.
“We’re making demands on the audience here. The first half must be uncomfortable to sit through.”
Dominguez plays Bill Riddick, a community organizer with an idea — almost universally regarded as insane — to bring Ellis into town meetings on school desegregation. That’s where Ellis meets Atwater, played by Nicole Hicks-Wedge.
Hicks-Wedge, like Dominguez, is American. The play hits home for both, revealing the best and worst sides of race relations in their country. But both believe it has lessons for their adoptive home, especially at the present time.
“I’m hoping that Canadians can find empathy in this story and see the parallels,” said Hicks-Wedge.
Before she came to Canada, Hicks-Wedge had little notion of the divide between Indigenous people and other Canadians. But she said it was evident “by the time I hit Canadian soil.”
Dominguez was reminded of something he heard in the locker-room soon after joining the Roughriders: Indigenous people, he was told, “they’re the black people here.”
It might seem like race relations are now at a low point, with social media exposing how polarized the province is in the wake of the Gerald Stanley trial. It’s not quite Durham at the time of desegregation, perhaps, but the actors see the same push to demonize and turn inward.
But Dominguez pointed out that the message of Best of Enemies is optimistic, a sign that even the widest gulfs can be bridged.
“In the end these people became friends,” he said. “Two factions that found that common ground.”
For Chaput, the solution is communication — not the “reactive” kind prevalent on social media, but genuine dialogue that shows an effort to understand where opponents are coming from.
“That is what is really at the heart of this play,” he said. “No matter how much you demonize the other side, you’re talking about human beings on each side, and the way to make progress is to discuss that humanity in other people.”
Two acts: one full of hate, one full of healing. Bonnie Senger, who plays Ellis’s wife, is hoping Saskatchewan will go the same way.
“We’re hoping for an Act Two,” she said.
Saturday was the first staging of the play, at a gala fundraiser at the Artesian. Just before showtime, Dominguez said he felt more confident after spending so much time rehearsing with “veterans” like Chaput, Senger and Hicks-Wedge.
“I’m the rookie,” he said. “I’m the guy who says, ‘just don’t f— up too much.’”
His first scene as Riddick began with a few verbal stumbles. Even Matthew Jr. admitted as much. But the 13-year-old actor, who has already appeared in SaskTel commercials, thought his dad pulled it back together quickly — and delivered a masterful performance.
“He was really good,” said Matthew Jr. “I was surprised he memorized all of his lines. I didn’t think he could do it.”
“I wasn’t expecting any of this from him, and I just loved it. It was awesome.”
It wasn’t just his father’s performance that impressed the younger Dominguez. The story of Ellis and Atwater got through to him too.
“I actually got a little teary eyed at the ending,” said Matthew Jr. “It showed a really good story of the history of black lives.”
Best of Enemies begins its weeklong run on Tuesday, Feb. 27 at the Artesian on 13th Avenue near Albert Street. It continues until March 3.