You used to call me Marie

York Theatre to April 28, 2024
Tickets from $29 at 604-251-1363 or www.thecultch.com

Posted April 21, 2024

First Nations stories by First Nations writers are appearing more and more often on stages across the country and now Alberta playwright/performer/politician Tai Amy Grauman brings the story of Métis women to the York Theatre. From the programme notes Grauman explains: “Métis narratives have been previously dominated by stories of the men. My intention with this play was to bring the stories of the women out of the shadows and into the spotlight.” She refers to You used to call me Marie as a “love letter to all the Métis women in Alberta” and it was inspired by the women of her own family, the Callihoo women.

Under Lois Anderson’s sensitive and imaginative direction the play opens with a galloping, prancing, whinnying of performers wearing wire wild horse heads with flowing manes. It’s a beautiful opener that sets the stage for a magical retelling of eight Alberta Métis women called Marie from the 1700s through to 2021.

According to Cree mythology, humans come from stars and Grauman’s play begins with Iskwewo (portrayed by Grauman) and Napew (Aren Okemaysim) taking on earthly bodies. In their new forms, Iskwewo speaks Cree and Napew speaks French; they meet, fall in love but become separated. Over the decades and in different forms they repeatedly find each other: “It’s you”, she says, “You found me.” “I promised”, he replies each time.

In a Stir magazine interview, Grauman said research for her MA in Fine Arts led her into Métis story-telling methods. “I often feel our stories are told through a deficit lens,” she said.  Her new or different lens – eight intertwined love stories with each new generation ‘star-born’ – is unfamiliar to many of us. Western storytelling tradition, with its roots in Greek theatre, offers a protagonist to whom we relate – for better or worse – and a more or less linear story. I found it difficult to invest in eight different Maries – despite being all strong, feisty women – when each of their stories is just a brief sketch of where they were at in the history of Alberta before moving on. “Time passes” is an oft repeated line as Grauman moves the story from one Marie to another Marie and, finally, to Rose.

Running through all the Marie stories is the cultivation of sweet grass and tobacco, a kind of symbolic mingling of indigenous and French Canadian culture. That symbolism is a constant in the play as each succeeding generation of Maries works the land.

In spite of my difficulty with the various Maries and the repetition of certain lines, You used to call me Marie is beautiful to look at with Candelario Andrade’s gorgeous projections, Stephanie Elgersma’s magical horse heads, Kathleen Nisbet’s exhilarating fiddling, Krystle Pederson’s keyboard and vocals, Yvonne Chartrand’s exuberant jigging choreography and Alaia Hamer and Evan Ducharme’s costumes that take us through the Métis generations.

I left the theatre with a feeling of melancholy – not, I think, the playwright’s intention. In spite of the boisterous Métis jigging, the life and death of Marie’s horse called Mistatim signalled for me the dying of the old Métis ways. Certainly, the past was not easy and the continuing fight for equality is hard, but moving on often entails leaving behind something precious: in this case, attachment to the land. Rose, who used to be called Marie, is now a Nashville star.

“If there’s something that I have in my life, it’s a hell of a lot of love,” Grauman says. There was a lot of that running around on opening night at the York and the production is a significant achievement. Grauman is now the Women’s Representative, and Secretary of Advancement of Women & Girls within the Otipemisiawk Métis Government and she is determined to bring the stories of Métis women to the forefront. Produced by the Savage Society and the NAC Indigenous Theatre, and presented by the Cultch, You used to call me Marie moves to Ottawa’s National Arts Centre in June of this year.