Cree reimagining of Macbeth makes Manitoba debut in Brandon

Chelsea Kemp · CBC News

· Posted: Jun 21, 2025 7:00 AM EDT | Last Updated: 5 hours ago

A reimagining of Macbeth — acceptable successful a clip earlier colonization and rooted in the Cree worldview, connection and tradition — is acceptable to be performed on Treaty 2 territory for the archetypal clip this weekend.

Pawâkan, a accumulation from Akpik Theatre — a nonrecreational theatre institution founded successful the Northwest Territories successful 2008 that present tours crossed Canada — transforms Shakespeare's classical communicative of ambition and betrayal into a solemnisation of Indigenous culture.

Audiences successful Manitoba volition present get to spot it for the archetypal time, with performances connected Sunday and Monday at the Western Manitoba Centennial Auditorium successful Brandon.

Playwright Reneltta Arluk says it centres Indigenous voices, showing the spot and complexity of Cree beingness earlier colonization.

Part of that, she says, is utilizing laughter arsenic healing.

"Indigenous radical ... our laughter is specified a immense portion of who we are arsenic people. There's a batch of humour successful this play," Arluk said.

While the communicative draws loosely from Macbeth, it has been wholly rewritten to elevate Cree perspectives and language. 

The main character, Macikosisân, is consumed by a cannibal tone known arsenic "the 1 who walks alone" — whose sanction is lone spoken erstwhile snowfall is connected the crushed — symbolizing greed and violence, Arluk said.

The 3 witches of Shakespeare's play are reimagined arsenic the wiyôyôwak, spiritual beings who situation the characters to bespeak connected individuality and spirituality.

Pawâkan was calved retired of clip spent with students and elders successful the Cree assemblage of Frog Lake First Nation, on Treaty 6 territory in bluish Alberta, and during her residency crossed assorted reserves, Arluk said.

Macbeth became a instrumentality to speech astir greed and the cannibal spirit, she said. Elders told stories of the spirit, portion younker shared stories of the land.

That blend inspired her to reshape the calamity into Pawâkan, a communicative that explores however imbalance, isolation, and spiritual hunger impact communities.

"This play is astir balance. It's astir erstwhile you spell excessively acold 1 way, and you isolate yourself and others," Arluk said.

"We request each different arsenic people. We request each different much than ever. And truthful that's what this play truly does.... It truly asks each different to beryllium determination for each other."

Elevating Indigenous voices

Pawâkan has toured Treaty 6 territory — including Edmonton, North Battleford, Sask., and Frog Lake — arsenic good arsenic parts of the Atlantic and Northwest Territories.

There are really 2 versions of the play — the touring 90-minute version, titled The Community Telling of Pawâkan, and a full-length mentation that hasn't yet been produced.

Its Brandon show is unsocial successful different mode — it's happening successful summertime adjacent the summertime solstice. Traditionally, manager Barry Bilinsky says, stories similar Pawâkan are told successful the dormant of winter.

That means the shorter mentation besides has 2 versions — one for winter, and 1 for summer. In the summertime version, the sanction of the cannibal tone is omitted.

"We request the wintertime to equilibrium retired the summer, we request the airy to equilibrium the dark," helium said. "It reminds america of what our ancestors went through, and what radical close present are going through, and what it means to beryllium genuinely starving."

The play is besides a accidental to observe Cree culture, especially successful communities that don't often spot ample theatre productions, Arluk said.

When she graduated from theatre school, determination were fewer opportunities for Indigenous actors, adjacent with ceremonial training, she said.

"It was inactive truly challenging to get into those theatres, due to the fact that I was Indigenous, and those stories were not our stories," she said.

She wants to alteration that.

Making abstraction for Indigenous artists is critical, she says, especially due to the fact that Shakespeare is profoundly embedded successful Canadian acquisition — adjacent successful isolated communities wherever Indigenous stories often are not.

She's seen first-hand however students airy up erstwhile they get to stock Cree cosmology.

"It's almighty … these stories of the land," she said. "I bash genuinely judge that our stories are the astir intrinsic and compelling stories."

Bilinsky agrees, adding the accumulation is besides a connection astir Indigenous beingness connected stage.

"It's truthful captious for young radical to spot themselves up connected signifier and to recognize that these languages aren't dead, that these stories aren't gone and that … we tin beryllium connected those stages," helium said.

Every show feels different, Bilinsky says. Some audiences are afloat of Cree speakers, laughing on with the jokes, portion others are quiescent and reverent.

During immoderate performances, he's heard popular cans cracked unfastened mid-show oregon audiences rustling snacks — moments that punctual him however divers these communities are, Bilinsky said.

One caller amusement included evacuees displaced by wildfires. He hopes Pawâkan offered a reprieve for them, and volition offer others a reminder of Indigenous perseverance.

"It helps radical retrieve what they bash have, and what we've hung connected to contempt everything that's happened," helium said.