Imagine a future where the earth has been fracked, burned and flooded and only one matriarch made it through. She finds and attaches one thing to her: the hooks that were once used by the volunteer organization Drag the Red to dredge the bottom of the Red River in search of evidence or remains.
The new play, Rise, Red River, invites you to open your heart and glimpse into this future with your own eyes. Not only does this work touch on the topic of missing and murdered Indigenous women, but it also invites the audience to reflect on what happens when we turn our back on the earth and climate change changes everything.
Rise, Red River tells the story of a matriarch (played by Tracey Nepinak) carrying on the work the family members of missing and murdered women, girls and two-spirit people started in 2014 when they created Drag the Red. She searches for answers alone in a now-dry river bed, and as she drags, meets Ancestors and uncovers their stories.
Co-produced by Article 11, Prairie Theater Exchange and Théâtre Cercle Molière (TCM), Rise, Red River is a trilingual play in Anishinaabemowin, French and English. Surtitles (like subtitles, but used in live performances) in three languages will be projected for the whole theatre so everyone will always know what’s being said.
Marsha Knight plays the role of an Ancestor in Rise, Red River and she says it was one thing to learn the lines and perform them on stage, but it was completely different to learn the lines and a ‘new’ language.
“This play is being done in three languages – English, French, and Anishinaabemowin. I don’t speak my language – Saulteaux. It was spoken around me, but for social and political reasons, my mother forbid me to learn it. So to speak it in this production has been an immense learning curve and one that I am so, so grateful for.”
Knight says there are so many elements that make the play special, but if she had to choose one thing, it would be the story.
“In oral storytelling, there are many types of stories – stories for teaching, stories for entertainment, stories for learning about where we come from,” says Knight. “This one, I believe, will be a story for reflection…to allow for people to have discussions that still aren’t happening. To support the voices and the wills of those who are telling their stories but are still not being heard.”
Knight says she read the synopsis on TCM’s website as part of their upcoming productions and knew she wanted to see the play immediately—only to find out she had been cast in the production by Tara Beagan and Andy Moro, the set, video & lighting designer. Together, Beagan and Moro are Article 11, an acclaimed Indigenous activist arts and live performance group.
“Tara and Andy are such amazing creators of storytelling and theatre and art. To be creating something so incredibly relevant…I am so honoured to be a part of it.”
Rise, Red River is dedicated to every woman who perseveres.
“There are those who will see this play who are already very involved in supporting Indigenous women and women-identifying people, and I hope that this story continues to support them and give them energy and ongoing resilience,” says Knight.
“Then there are those who don’t think they need to see this for any number of reasons…so they may choose not to. Those are the people who need to see this play.”
The premiere of Rise, Red River is on March 8 at TCM. Tickets can be purchased on line at: https://www.pte.mb.ca/performances/rise-red-river
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