Louis Riel’s life reimagined as a genre-hopping production

One thing everyone can agree on: Louis Riel contained multitudes.

Considered by many to be the father of Manitoban government and diplomacy, the Métis statesman and leader of the Red River Resistance is the central figure in the modern history of the Canadian heartland.

But in the 141 years since he was hanged for high treason, Riel has continued to defy simple categorization, while asserting his memory into daily conversation and legislation: the man’s multifaceted legend has only grown since his death.

Running throughout the Winnipeg Fringe Theatre Festival — opening at 30 venues across the city Wednesday — on the mainstage at Prairie Theatre Exchange (Venue 16), The 7 Lives of Louis Riel grapples with the impossible task of biographical summation, inserting its characters into genres — spaghetti western, high-flying action, film noir, superhero and even Hallmark movies — that jig between established fact and inherited misunderstanding.

“The story of the Métis people in Riel’s lifetime is like an HBO series,” says Cory Wojcik, who co-wrote the script with Katie German and Geneviève Pelletier, the former artistic director of Théâtre Cercle Molière. Stage manager Michelle Lagasse and sound engineer Josh Ranville round out the all-Indigenous crew.

When it comes to the soaring potential of “Rielity TV,” Wojcik’s not wrong — imagine a pilot mixing the dusty drama of Deadwood with the cutting satire of backroom politics in Veep.

But the story behind The 7 Lives more closely resembles a spinoff of the Hollywood script factory show Project Greenlight: the production’s making is also defined by multiple lives.

In 2009, longtime fringe company Monster Theatre produced an earlier version of the show, but Vancouver-based creator Ryan Gladstone (Til Death: The Six Wives of Henry VIII) retired the production as standards for cultural representation shifted.

Over a decade passed before Gladstone connected with Wojcik, asking the Winnipeg actor-writer-director if he was interested in reviving the material through a Métis lens.

“The story of the Métis people in Riel’s lifetime is like an HBO series.”

The original script was funny and lively without “drowning us in history,” recalls Wojcik, who connected with German and Pelletier to “Métis the thing up,” says Pelletier, who directs.

Since May, the trio has worked to adapt the original script, meeting weekly to augment the material with additional research and personal insights.

“What’s interesting about this play is that it has aged very well — it could be played as is even today — but we just felt as Métis artists that it was really important to bring in our voices to add context,” says Pelletier.

Using texts such as The Northwest is My Mother by Riel’s granddaughter Jean Teillet, and Ray St. Germain’s classic story-song The Métis, the group says they were able to delve into the complexities of Riel’s legacy.

German, who performs in the show alongside Wojcik, says the play features the broader strokes of Riel’s biography, but also plenty of singing and “goof balling.” There are songs, dances and running in-jokes about the Métis community, she says.

“It’s out of the history books, but it’s not a history book.”

“It’s out of the history books, but it’s not a history book.”

The show, at its core, is all about how connection, heritage, bias and outlook can shift historical perspective and narrative scripts, says German.

“There are some tangible changes we made, but we also did things in our process that I would say are inherently Indigenous,” says German. “We made sure that everyone’s voices had weight in the room, that we could all speak to the things we wanted to do.”

ben.waldman@winnipegfreepress.com

Turning back time

Here are a few other shows for the armchair historians among you.

Fission: The Death of Dr. Louis Slotin
(Venue 20, Le Studio at Théâtre Cercle Molière)

After exploring one of the more bizarre chapters in Manitoba’s Second World War history with last year’s If Day, local playwright Gilles Messier turns back the nuclear clock to explore how Winnipeg’s North End factored into the development of the atomic bomb.

Raised on Scotia Street and graduating from Machray Elementary, St. John’s Tech and the University of Manitoba, where he won the gold medal in chemistry and physics, Louis Slotin went on to work on the Manhattan Project in Los Alamos, N.M.

Afeni
(Venue 20, Le Studio at Théâtre Cercle Molière)

After several years at the fringe as a solo performer, Toronto’s Adam Bailey returns to the playwright column with this portrait of Afeni Shakur, a member of the Black Panther Party who also reared the late hip-hop icon Tupac.

Starring in the show is Edmonton’s Onika Henry. Bailey’s previous historical fringe efforts include The Assassination of Robert Ford: Dirty Little Coward, Franz Ferdinand Must Die and The Life Henri, about the painter Rousseau.

Panic — A Live Radio Musical
(Venue 3, Théâtre Cercle Molière)

Think “fake news” is a modern invention?

This production written by American playwright Stephen Dolginoff heads back to 1938, when a pre-Citizen Kane Orson Welles — all of 23 years old — decides to broadcast H.G. Wells’ The War of the Worlds to a gullible listening public.

Presented by Winnipeg’s Panic Players in partnership with the North Kildonan Community Players, this story of mediated manipulation at the Mercury Theatre might just give you nightmares of Mars attacks.

Quintland, the Musical
(Venue 4, Centre culturel franco-manitobain)

From Manitoban music educator Janna Larsen comes this slice of Canadiana, inspired by the real-life story of the Dionne quintuplets, who were born into tabloid fame and infamy during the Great Depression in Corbeil, Ont.

Seventy years before Jon and Kate Plus 8, the country was gripped with excitement by Emilie, Marie, Annette, Yvonne and Cécile, the first set of quintuplets known to survive past infancy.

As a tourist attraction, the Dionnes brought more than three million visitors to Corbeil, including Amelia Earheart.

Annette — the final surviving quint — died at age 91 in December.

The Ballad of Isobel Gunn
(Venue 17, PTE’s Colin Jackson Theatre)

About 220 years ago, a Scottish woman named Isobel Gunn played dress-up and masqueraded as John Fubbister in order to fulfil her dream of earning a living of her own by working for the Hudson’s Bay Company.

Fringe veteran Melanie Gall revisits the strange but true story of this hidden company man, whose life story was defined by labour, adventure and international intrigue.

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Ben Waldman
Reporter

Ben Waldman is a National Newspaper Award-nominated reporter on the Arts & Life desk at the Free Press. Born and raised in Winnipeg, Ben completed three internships with the Free Press while earning his degree at Ryerson University’s (now Toronto Metropolitan University’s) School of Journalism before joining the newsroom full-time in 2019. Read more about Ben.

Every piece of reporting Ben produces is reviewed by an editing team before it is posted online or published in print — part of the Free Press‘s tradition, since 1872, of producing reliable independent journalism. Read more about Free Press’s history and mandate, and learn how our newsroom operates.