SNTC play explores intergenerational divide between old, new forms of cultural expression
- Fraser Needham | February 25, 2015
A new Saskatoon play explores the clash between old and new ways of expressing Indigenous culture.
The House You Build runs February 25 through March 4 at the Saskatchewan Native Theatre Company.
It is the product of SNTC’s Circle of Voices program where youth work with an established playwright and other performers and artists to create a full-scale play.
Donna-Michelle St. Bernard wrote The House You Build and mentors on the production include hip-hop artist Lindsay Eekwol Knight, poet Kevin Wesaquate and elder John Sugar.
The play has a cast of eight youth and is directed by Charlie Peters.
The House You Build explores the intergenerational divide between elders and youth through the use of both modern and traditional dance and hip-hop.
It also features the use of the traditional First Nations languages of Dene and Lakota.
Twenty-seven-year-old Austin Lee Hunter takes on the role of Dan in the play – a character he describes as an Indigenous youth so steeped in his cultural identity that he sometimes gets on the nerves of the other characters as he tries to maintain authenticity in every situation.
Hunter says some characters in the play look to express their Aboriginal culture through traditional methods while others prefer to use newer mediums.
“It’s more or less contemporary youth who’ve been involved with hip-hop, that modern day approach, and there’s the other side of the coin with youth that are more interested in the traditionalist aspect,” he says. “At some point it’s just going to come to a head and it does come to a clash at one point in the play and we more or less tell a story that is true to everyone’s heart. Even 500 years after Europeans first came here, we’re still kind of having that little bit of cultural clash. So, it’s good to at least bring light to it and say, ‘hey, we work better together.’”
He adds he doesn’t really have any expectations in terms of what theatre goers should take away from the play but only hopes they find the experience enjoyable.
“A smile, that’s all they can really ask for. A smile and feeling that, ‘yeah, that was worth the price of a ticket.’”
For tickets or more information about The House You Build, contact the Saskatchewan Native Theatre Company at 306-933-2262 or go online at www.latroupedujour.ca.
Click here for more Arts & Culture stories.