As You Like It
A Radical Retelling by Cliff Cardinal
Produced by Crow’s Theatre
(Tkaronto/Toronto)
Co-Presented by the O’Kaadenigan Wiingashk Collective and Showplace Performance Centre
Supported by 4th Line Theatre and Public Energy
This programming is part of the 3rd annual Mnoominkewin Gathering
(Nogojiwanong/Peterborough)
Showplace Performance Centre (290 George Street, Peterborough)
September 22 & 23, 2022 @ 7:30 PM
Length: 90 minutes
Tickets:
Purchase Tickets for September 22nd at 7:30pm
Purchase Tickets for September 23rd at 7:30pm
Ticket Price: $25
Underemployed, students and artists PWYC, suggested amount $15
Photo Credit: Dahlia Katz
For two nights only – September 22 and 23, 2022 – Peterborough audiences will have the opportunity to see this ground-breaking, 2x nominated for the upcoming Dora Mavor Awards play, which engaged audiences in Toronto, Vancouver and Edmonton. It is a subversive updating of the Bard’s classic. The title, AS YOU LIKE IT, holds a double meaning that suggests this is a play to please all tastes. The show exults in bawdy humour and difficult subject matter.
Cliff Cardinal is an award-winning writer and performer known for his raw and divisive dark humour that challenges settler-colonial landscapes. Lakota-Dene and born on the Pine Ridge Reservation (South Dakota), Cliff studied playwriting at the National Theatre School of Canada and lives in Toronto, where he is an associate artist at VideoCabaret. Cliff also heads Cliff Cardinal and The Skylarks band, who have released two albums.
He is best known for his multi-award-winning one-man play Huff, which had its world premiere in Nogojiwanong/Peterborough at the 2012 Ode’min Giizis Festival. Not only did Huff win the Buddies in Bad Times’ Vanguard Award for Risk and Innovation, it also won Outstanding Performance and Outstanding New Play Dora Awards, RBC’s Emerging Playwright Award, The Edinburgh Fringe Festival Lustrum Award, was shortlisted for the Amnesty International Freedom of Expression Award and received a five-star review in The Guardian Observer.
William Shakespeare’s AS YOU LIKE IT, A Radical Retelling by Cliff Cardinal is co-Presented by the O’Kaadenigan Wiingashk Collective and Showplace Performance Centre. This subversive programming is produced by Crow’s Theatre and is part of the 3rd annual Mnoominkewin Gathering. O’Kaadenigan Wiingashk (OKW) formed in 2004, is an Indigenous multi-disciplinary Arts Collective well known in Nogojiwanong and the surrounding areas for its ambitious and well-received production of the Ode’min Giizis Festival (2007-2012). Current members of OKW are Curve Lake’s James Whetung, Sean Conway and Patti Shaughnessy.
“We are thrilled to welcome Cliff Cardinal back to Nogojiwanong / Peterborough and for audiences to witness this complex twist on Shakespeare,” says Shaughnessy, who promises it will be an enlightening and entertaining experience.
A passage from the original play is worth quoting here:
Sweet are the uses of adversity,
Which like the toad, ugly and venomous,
Wears yet a precious jewel in his head
– William Shakespeare
Bear those words in mind as you prepare for the surprises in store…
“Unlike any other production of the play, past or future.” —NOW Magazine
“It is anarchic and tender and seething and raw.” —Istvan Reviews
Audience Advisory: This play deals with difficult subject matter that may be triggering. Indigenous and Settler-identifying counsellors will be available at each performance. Please proceed to the side of the stage following the performance if you would like to access their services.
Learn more about this performance and other events happening at the 3rd annual Mnoominkewin Gathering on the website: https://www.mnoominkewin.com/as-you-like-it
