Dances
with
ghosts

Kicking Bear
retraces the
history of
Wounded Knee

Barbara Black
THEATRE REVIEW

The Trial of Kicking Bear, Firehall
Arts Centre, To Oct. 12, phone
689-0926,

ITH NATIVE

. issues in the

limelight, The Trial
of Kicking Bear is a timely
production. But it is by no
means a perfect production.
Rather; it seems to be
buoyed up. by the sincerity
and. conviction of its play-
wright and sole actor,
Michael C. Lawrenchuk.

Lawrenchuk, a Swampy Cree
> from Manitoba, wrote the play to
mark the 100th anniversary of the
massacre of the Sioux people at
Wounded Knee Creek on Jan. 16,
1891. It is currently showing at
The Firehall Arts Centre.

Lawrenchuk portrays warrior
and medicine man Kicking Bear,
who sits alone in a prison cell con-
templating the recent inglorious
demise of his native people and
his now uncertain future. He re-
counts his story to an agent of Buf-
falo Bill's Wild West show (not
visible} who is eager to secure him
as a “wild injun.””

The stage is almost bare save a
wall and a projected rectangle of
light to indicate the confines of the
Brison. A siool stands in the mid-

je.

It is the perfect opportunity for
Lawrenchuk to create a world of
imagined landscapes and people-
scapes as he recounts the events
of native resistance to enforced
land settlement on reserves.

Unfortunately, in the first act,
Lawrenchuk falls short of this op-
portunity and the play proceeds
more like an evening of rambling

storytelling than a drama.

Often, the emotions of his char-
acter seem pasted on superficially
to go with certain lines, rather
than being informed from the in-
side, from the soul of the man,
Kicking Bear. Gestures are too
often stylized (outreaching hand,
upward stretched arms}, which
prevents the audience from know-
ing Kicking Bear more intimately.

The play improves in the second
act when Lawrenchuk more di-
rectly addresses the audience and
recreates with his body (not just
words) events from his childhood.
The story of the “‘iron horse’’ was
especially effective.

Certain elements of the play
work, For instance the way Kick-
ing Bear prefaces his stories with
“did you know..."’, engaging the
audience and also implicating (but
never accusing) us in some of the
events of the aboriginal past. We,
however, have no recourse to an-
swer, Itis Kicking Bear’s chance to
tell his version and our turn to
remain mute.

if it weren't for the program
notes, my understanding of the
Ghost Dance would have remain-
ed fuzzy. It was, apparently,
brought about by a vision of Kick-
ing Bear's. He believed the dance
would restore the old way of life.
In fact, it was a dance in which the
participants were already ghosts
themselves from a soon-to-be-
erased way of life. (This is all in
retrospect, of course.)

phato submitied

MICHAEL LAWRENCHUK as
Kicking Bear in the one-man
show at Firehati Arts Cer:tre
to October 12.

tthink The Trial of Kicking Bear
can evolve if Lawrenchuk is willing
to invest some time rethinking the
staging.

Attention could be paid to the
pacing of the show by carefully
developing Kicking Bear's pro-
gression from debasement (being
thrown in prison) to affirmation
{coming to terms with his actions)
and resignation (joining Buffalo
Bill’s Wild Circus).

By dramatizing the events,
rather than recounting them while
circumnavigating the stage,
Lawrenchuk might find Kicking
Bear's character emerging more
naturally.

Kicking Bear’s and the native
people's struggie to understand
Christianity was a strong moment
in the play, particularly when he
explained that, like Christianity’s
claim that the world Degan with

“the word,”’ native religion says
the world began with a sound.

The world of Kicking Bear ended
with not a sound from the au-
dience, but it was not clear
whether it was the emotional im-
pact or just exhaustion.

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