Poem-play Dominion looks at Canada and colonialism
Poem-play Dominion symbolizes colonial Canada
GTNT starts its season with an allegorical play that breaks the rules of playwriting. Writer and poet Andrea Ledding’s first play, Dominion, is about a couple who take over a house and confine the original owners to the bathroom. It’s symbolic of colonialism and the reserve system.
Director Curtis Peeteetuce tells the Saskatoon StarPhoenix he didn’t know where to begin.
Q Tell me in general terms about this play.
A It’s one of the most challenging plays I’ve ever worked on. Immediately, I could see some of the things that were going to pose a challenge. Some of the language. Some of the ways in which the story is told. And sometimes a poet is very interpretive in their writing, they know exactly what they’re seeing and saying, so the challenge will be for the director or audience to find or hop on board with that similar vision.
Q Does the script even look like a script?
A Not really. It’s like a big poem, to be honest. The language is beautiful, it’s fluid, it’s very, very abstract. At the same time, we’re having a lot of fun. We go through a scene and then we all stop after the scene is done and look at each other and go, what was that?
Q How does the playwright develop the premise?
A A British man and francophone woman have taken over the house and locked the Indigenous couple in the bathroom. The question we ask in the world of the play is, are they going to get out of the bathroom and, if they do, what’s going to happen? So that’s the one thing we hang onto throughout the play.
Q In the script, Ledding stipulates that “Great liberties must be taken with this play.” Have you taken liberties?
A I’ve had to, I found with this play. As the director, what I want for the audience is that they can see a beginning, a middle and an end in terms of character arcs. There’s no real story, but you get what’s happening even if you don’t. You kind of look at a metaphor for things like misogyny or politics and power or things like privilege or things even like language. You get the metaphor but then you have to give it a little more thought as to why it is this way in the script. And then I think that’s going to be the prompt for discussion and conversation.
Q Is there much going on technically?
A Costume, lights and sound are almost going to be a sixth character because we’re going to rely on them heavily to take us from place to place as we go on this journey inside a house.
Q What effect do you hope this has on an audience?
A I hope that when audiences leave Dominion they can talk to each other and say, “You know, isn’t our history kind of ridiculous, isn’t it kind of funny but at the same time isn’t it kind of dark?” I think audiences are going to be talking about it in that way.