By Liz Nicholls, .ca
Shadow Theatre will launch its upcoming four-production 31st season with the world premiere of a new play by Edmonton’s Neil Grahn.
The Two Battles of Francis Pegahmagabow chronicles the extraordinary life and career of one of Canada’s most highly decorated Indigenous soldiers. The star sniper and scout returned home from fighting for his country in World War I to find himself in another kind of trench — a world where he didn’t even have the right to vote. And the warrior/ Chief/ activist took up another kind of cause.
The play isn’t the first time that playwright Grahn, a theatre artist of extreme versatility — his credits, most recently leaning into film and television, include improv and sketch comedy — has turned to Canadian history for inspiration. In 2018, Shadow launched their season with a hit premiere production of Grahn’s The Comedy Club, which brought to life another largely unknown true Canadian World War I story: the members of Princess Patricia’s Light Infantry Division who were summoned, in the darkest days of that darkest of wars, to devise musical comedy shows to divert their fellow soldiers.
“Francis is reflecting back on his life,” says Shadow artistic director John Hudson of the new Grahn play, “and it’s very fluid in time periods.” He co-directs the Shadow production (Nov. 7 to 14) with Christine Sokaymoh Frederick. Ryan Cunningham, Toronto-based these days, stars as Pegahmagabow, and leads a cast of five that so far includes includes Trevor Duplessis, Monica Gate, and Ben Kuchera.
History figures prominently in the 2024-2025 Shadow lineup announced this week. It includes another world premiere. At the centre of After Mourning, Before Van Gogh by Calgary-based playwright Michael Czuba, is the sister-in-law of the painter, Johanna Bonger, a woman with a mission. She not only refused to destroy his art work after his death, but worked tirelessly to ensure the world would know about it. It’s an arduous journey: amazingly, van Gogh, who died in obscurity, didn’t sell a single painting during his 36-year lifetime. John Hudson’s production (March 20 to April 7) stars Lora Brovold as Johanna, with a cast that includes Steven Greenfield, Donna Leny Hansen and Yassine El Fassi El Fihri. Vincent himself is the role that has yet to be cast.
The script gets a staged reading at Script Salon May 12.
Bea, a 2010 play by the Brit writer Mick Gordon, is the choice of director Amanda Goldberg, the new artistic producer of the SkirtsAfire Festival who was Shadow’s Artistic Director Fellow in the 20223-2023 season. As Hudson describes, the play is a challenging mixture of “a lot of comedy, full of love and heart and friendship.” The young woman of the title is in a bleak situation in the real world. She lies paralyzed, year after year, “and the play lives in her imagination, where she dances, and sings, full of life. The Shadow production Jan. 23 to Feb. 9 2025 stars Karen Unruh, with Michael Watt and Kate Newby.
The season finale (May 1 to 18 2025), Where You Are, is a much-produced multi-hued comedy by the Canadian playwright Kristen da Silva about two sisters, whose peaceful retirement on Manitoulin Island is complicated by an uncontainable secret. Hudson describes it as “lovely, heart-felt and very funny.” Shadow faves Coralie Cairns and Davina Stewart star as the sisters in his production, with Nikki Hulowski as the daughter of one of them. The fourth role remains to be cast.
Meanwhile Shadow’s 30th anniversary season finale, Tiny Beautiful Things, continues its run at the Varscona through May 12.
Subscriptions for the upcoming season are now available at shadowtheatre.org.