review by Lauren Kalinowski
photos by Nanc Price for the Citadel Theatre
Despite the overly formal theatre stage, beautiful harmonies came from the audience to join Andrea Menard in song in her creation Rubaboo at the MacLab Theatre. The lively performance would have been brilliant at an outdoor music venue, so we could get up to sing and dance along. The cabaret-style show of singing, dancing, and storytelling brought traditional and little-seen matriarchal Métis storytelling drama to a new audience.
Opening with dramatic lighting and drumming to accompany Michif-language song, the audience was introduced to ‘rubaboo’, the Michif word for stew, metaphorically “cooking up” an artistic feast of the four elements: wind, water, earth and fire. The musical foursome filled up our imagination-bellies with a fiddle, Chapman Stick, drums and various percussion instruments.
Menard’s warm, honest tone invited our spirits to Gather Round and made us laugh. The setting elevated the solemnity of reconciliation-seeking tales like Riel’s Prayer and Where is God in this Place. We felt the weight of the stories in these pieces. We were grateful to be taken on a musical journey through Métis memory and kinship.
Robert Walsh, the musical director, accompanied Menard’s throughline of storytelling with the guitar and featured his own masculine ballad with ‘L’espoir’. Themes of balance, honouring Mother Nature, ancestral spirit and the elements trickled through the show. Karen Shepherd’s gentle soprano complimented Menard’s alto, but she really shone through with her fiddle jigs, bringing real joy to the stage. Nathan Aswell rounded out the instrumental accompaniment by introducing us to the Chapman Stick, explaining that he could play a bass line and melody simultaneously. The performers were a pleasure to watch and felt like a truly cohesive family in song.
Rubaboo is the show that our current political climate needs: it combines all sides of Métis spirit. There were both hard truths and hilarious folktales – underlined with gentle thanks and spiritual knowledge. We’re thirsty for stories to be passed on this way, the traditional way by the fire, and we leave with a greater sense of the harsh realities of Métis history. Menard shared perspective on past political events like the Return of the Bell of Batoche and Louis Riel.
Several children were in the audience; I wonder how they were taking this in with a spirit of truth and reconciliation my generation was not privy to until recently. My wish is that every Canadian could see this show, not just for the amazing artistry but also to experience traditional storytelling about our country.
Rubaboo
MacLab Theatre
March 2 2024
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