Richard Margison as Francis Rattenbury in new opera
What: Canada, It’s Complicated Where: Farquhar Auditorium, University of Victoria When: Saturday, 8 p.m. Tickets: $23.50 at tickets.uvic.ca, in person at the University Centre box office (3800 Finnerty Rd.), or by phone at 250-721-8480 Canadians often know more about American history than that of their own country, which makes life difficult for Canuck satirists such as Mary Walsh.
Walsh — who earns her living mining the country for comedy — weathered the storm during her award-winning 11-year stretch with news parody program This Hour Has 22 Minutes, and is doing so again as the writer-producerdirector of a new satirical revue, Canada, It’s Complicated.
“We’re all ready to hear about [Canadian history], and we’re all ready to hear about it in a funny way,” Walsh said recently from her home in St. John’s, Nfld.
“It’s not like we’re lecturing people. We’re having fun, dancing and singing. And we’re pointing out some facts along the way.”
Along with a sizable team of writers and producers, Walsh’s task was to find bits about Canada that would catch the ears of audience members, no matter the demographic. The main difficulty in writing pieces such as the game show Trick or Treaty or Hamiltonlike musical Riel was unearthing the facts every Canadian knows — or should know.
“In the production, someone says: ‘If there’s anything more boring than history it’s Canadian history.’ But it’s just not true,” Walsh said. “Canadian history is fraught with the most interesting and compelling stories, but I think sometimes we tend to ignore our own history. Sometimes, we don’t want to recognize who we really are. And we have to come to terms with that. Face the mistakes we’ve made, and celebrate all the great things we’ve done.”
Canada, It’s Complicated is a massive undertaking (47 dates in 10 weeks) that will have travelled to every Canadian province and territory before it wraps on Nov. 12. Walsh assembled a team of trusted writers, musicians and comedians that includes Tiffany Ayalik and Greyson Gritt of Juno award-winning group Quantum Tangle, writer Mike Allison (This Hour Has 22 Minutes), Métis playwrights Mieko Ouchi and Marie Clements, and novelist Thomas King, among others.
Walsh, who isn’t travelling with the production due to a concussion, said the performers were given one clear directive: Poke fun at Canada with all your might, but celebrate the country at the same time.
“It isn’t only critical, it’s a celebration of who we are. We’ve made lots of mistakes. But there’s a whole lot of stuff we’ve done that is quite right, too.”
The treatment of Indigenous peoples is a recurring theme in the program, which is presented like educational children’s programming. Previous governments made mistakes that will never be corrected, she said, but the country has come a long way in recent years.
“When the United States was shooting protesting students at Kent State [in 1970], Canada was giving out youth grants across this country — where all you had to do to get a grant was be young,” she said with a laugh. “We go a different way.”
In a strange twist, Walsh’s latest project had support from the Canada 150 fund — which, in effect, means the federal government funded a show satirizing federal governments of the past. Walsh was not told by anyone what she could and couldn’t skewer, so she has nothing but good things to say about the funding program’s year-long celebration of Canadiana. “It seems now like it would be a no-brainer for funding. But at the time, it felt like a real long shot,” she joked.
“That’s what these celebrations often are about. What we do on New Year’s Eve, what we do on our birthdays, is we take a look at what we’ve done, and decide how we’re gong to do it a little differently in the future.”