Impasse in talks about casting Indigenous actors

MONTREAL — A meeting between Quebec director Robert Lepage and activists concerned with a lack of Indigenous representation in his upcoming stage show ended without a concrete promise to change the cast.

Lepage and Paris theatre director Ariane Mnouchkine met for nearly six hours with more than 30 members of the Indigenous community who had signed an open letter in Le Devoir denouncing the production Kanata, which will be performed in Paris by a French acting group in December.

According to a description on the theatre’s website, Kanata will explore Canada’s history “through the lens of the relationship between white and Aboriginal Peoples,” but won’t feature any Indigenous actors.

Nakuset, executive director of the Native Women’s Shelter of Montreal, said the meeting ended without a commitment from Lepage to revisit the show’s casting. She said talking to Lepage was “like speaking to a wall.”

“It didn’t go well, it didn’t go the way we wanted it to go, and it just didn’t seem we were really being listened to,” said Nakuset, who uses only one name.

“Had they hired at least one Indigenous actor, that would have been my success. I didn’t walk away with that.”

The controversy comes after Lepage’s play SLAV was cancelled in Montreal amid accusations of racial insensitivity because it featured a mostly white cast singing slave songs.