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Indigenous theatre

iPhoto caption: Michaela Washburn, Teneil Whiskeyjack, Jesse Fervais, Tracey Nepinak, and Valerie Planche in 'Strife.' Photo by Jae Yang.

Q&A: Matthew MacKenzie on Strife and Indigenous sovereignty in storytelling

In plays including Bears, After the Fire, and The First Métis Man of Odesa, Cree-Métis playwright Matthew MacKenzie has centred Indigenous perspectives while examining how identity and power operate within both personal and political spheres.

By Krystal Abrigo / Apr 9, 2026
(Front) Brefny Caribou, Trevor Duplessis, and (back) Cheri Maracle in 'Rose.' iPhoto caption: (Front) Brefny Caribou, Trevor Duplessis, and (back) Cheri Maracle in 'Rose.' Photo by Curtis Perry.

REVIEW: Tomson Highway’s three-act musical Rose makes long-awaited world premiere at Ottawa’s NAC

Rose is, in many ways, a story oriented around grief — particularly queer and lesbian grief for Indigenous women. But it also centres humour and kinship.

By Madeleine Vigneron / Apr 1, 2026
Headshot of Colin Wolf. iPhoto caption: Photo courtesy of Playwrights Canada Press.

In CoyWolf, playwright Colin Wolf ponders the meaning of resistance

“There’s a venn diagram [in which] wolf displacement across Canada matches Indigenous displacement,” he explains ahead of the play's publication with Playwrights Canada Press. “If you look at a map over the years of wolf territory, it's very similar to Indigenous territory in the way that it's been pushed over and up.”

By Nathaniel Hanula-James / Oct 3, 2025
Soulpepper's production of Takwahiminana iPhoto caption: Photo by Dahlia Katz.

REVIEW: Takwahiminana explores what healing means when the past never quite lets go

While playwright Matthew MacKenzie’s lyrical storytelling is always a delight, there’s something astringent and detached about Takwahiminana that produces a distancing effect, preventing it from reaching the emotional highs of his other recent work.

By Ilana Lucas / May 7, 2025