ON STAGE
What: Bears
Where: Belfry Theatre, 1291 Gladstone Ave.
When: Now until Feb. 24.
Tickets: $20-$55 (plus GST). Available at 250-385-6815 or online at .
Matthew MacKenzie was in Toronto a few years ago when the walls of the city began to close in around him and he experienced something of a 鈥渟piritual crisis.鈥�
鈥淚t makes me sound like a total bumpkin,鈥� he says, 鈥渂ut I think I just was not prepared for how overwhelming a city that big would be.鈥�
Longing for a place where he could walk without bumping into a single person, MacKenzie retreated to his home province of Alberta and the Rocky Mountains, landing in Canmore 鈥� a town 鈥渨here I knew all of three people.鈥�
The move had the desired effect, getting MacKenzie back in touch with the land, the things he cared about and the stories he wanted to tell.
Soon, he was going to a caf茅 every day and writing.
鈥淚 didn鈥檛 even know if it was a play,鈥� he says. 鈥淚 just started writing about animals and bears and then, increasingly, a story emerged.鈥�
Bears, which runs until Feb. 24 at the Belfry Theatre in Victoria, uses comedy, music and dance to tell the story of Floyd, a M茅tis oilsands worker who flees Edmonton following a 鈥渨orkplace incident.鈥� With the RCMP on his tail, he makes his way along the Trans Mountain Pipeline route to Burnaby. In the process, he鈥檚 helped by birds and animals, experiences a spiritual awakening and undergoes a transformation.
MacKenzie, who doubles as director, says the play was inspired, in part, by the story of his great-great-great grandmother K卯s卯skac卯wan, who was Cree and who traversed a mountain pass near Canmore with an expedition in the 1840s.
She had left the area many years earlier and when she finally saw the North Saskatchewan River again, she sat on its banks for three days and wept, MacKenzie says.
One account of the trip said K卯s卯skac卯wan displayed 鈥渢he same veneration for the North Saskatchewan as those of the Hindu faith do for the Ganges.鈥�
鈥淭hat account has always really stuck with me,鈥� says MacKenzie, who grew up in Edmonton and descends from Cree, Ojibwe and M茅tis people. In writing Bears, he says, he tried to see the land the same way as his great-great-great grandmother.
鈥淲hen you hear about Alberta, and even when Albertans talk about Alberta, it feels like it鈥檚 a place to be exploited,鈥� he says. 鈥淏ut long before that was happening, this land was very sacred. So that鈥檚 what led me down the road to write Bears.鈥�
At the same time, he wanted to tell a nuanced story from the perspective of blue-collar workers, who, he believes, too often get 鈥渢hrown under the bus鈥� in the pipeline debate. In that, he found an ally in actor and former oilpatch worker Sheldon Elter, who stars as Floyd.
鈥淗e was not interested in telling a story that would damn the working man, but still very keen to take a critical eye to what we鈥檙e doing,鈥� MacKenzie says.
鈥淥ne of the strengths of the show is that anyone, regardless of their opinion 鈥� whether they鈥檙e pro- or anti-pipeline or whether they鈥檙e just neutral 鈥� they鈥檒l get something out of it.
鈥淚t鈥檚 not political in so far as the writer is telling you their politics and telling you how they think the world should be fixed. If anything, I鈥檓 just riffing on chickadees and salmon and stuff and letting people kind of think about things on their own.鈥�
The music, dance and comedic elements of the show help to soften the politics, says MacKenzie, who collaborated with choreographer Monica Dottor and composer Noor Dean Musani.
鈥淲e鈥檙e taking a topic that often is really divisive, especially in Alberta, and really often quite depressing. Hopefully, when people come to this show, they鈥檙e not leaving depressed; they鈥檙e leaving energized and they鈥檝e had a good time laughing and watching some incredible performers dance.鈥�
