Regina Globe Theatre appears before federal heritage committee after recent run of ‘Little Red Warrior and His Lawyer’

The Globe Theatre answered questions posed by a federal committee regarding a controversy involving a recent production. Sierra D'Souza Butts reports.

Representatives of Regina’s Globe Theatre appeared before the federal heritage committee regarding a recent student matinee performance of the play Little Red Warrior and His Lawyer.

The discussion comes weeks after a group of Regina students left in the middle of the show due to the play’s adult themes reportedly taking teachers by surprise. The section of the play in question involves a performer pole dancing in drag.

Conservative MP Kevin Waugh – a member of the Standing Committee on Canadian Heritage – asked the Globe “if there was a misunderstanding about the age” of students who viewed the show.

“What your question is addressing … is the idea of cultural diversity, diversity of communities and diversity of ideas,” Jennifer Brewin, the globe’s artistic director, told the committee on May 28.

“The idea that we live in a community with multiple realities and cultural realities is something the arts gets to show off and embrace. In terms of the Little Red Warrior and His Lawyer this was a play that has been produced across the country.”

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Brewin added that the script of the play was available to teachers from the schools attending the play to review in advance of the student matinees.

In the committee meeting, Conservative MP Kerry Diotte also asked if Brewin would describe the play as “racy,”

“One of the students who has interviewed by media after the performance said; ‘It was supposed to focus on Indigenous issues and reclaiming Indigenous land, but I feel the play lost the plot. It was kind of all about sex.’ Would you agree?” Diotte asked.

In response, Brewin said there’s a diversity of opinions and responses of the show, referring to other students views. She also described the play as a “farce.”

“[The play] was a farce. It was about Indigenous land claims and the farce, and the sauciness, in the play was related to those issues that were going on,” Brewin said.

“… That’s what was the coolest thing that happened out of this terrible, terrible misrepresentation of the story [were] really cool conversations could have happened between parents and content and arts organizations, and it actually did happen and more people showed up to the theatre than before,” she added, while answering another question from the committee.

Playwright thanks Globe Theatre for support

In a post to social media on June 5, playwright Kevin Loring thanked Brewin for defending the play at the committee meeting as well as the Globe Theatre for its support through the controversy.

“This has been an ongoing issue for the last couple of weeks for myself and our team, and has been a real strain on the artists involved. The theatre had to go as far as bringing uniformed police officers into the theatre as a result of the death threats that were being levied at the artists,” the post read.

“I just wanted to give shout out to the audience of The Globe Theatre in Regina for coming out in droves and supporting our little lands claim trickster satire, Little Red Warrior and His Lawyer.”

“I want to give huge shout out to Jennifer Brewin who you can see holding the line, in this Canadian Heritage committee meeting about cultural spaces and an enormous shout out to the entire Globe Theatre team who hosted us and held us so completely through this awful wonderful experience,” Loring added.

Evalyn Parry, the director for the Globe’s latest production of Arsenic and Old Lace, said her team was present at the theatre during the final weeks of the Little Red Warrior and His Lawyer show.

Parry said she noticed how supportive the theatre has been for artists including her team.

“I always feel a great resonance with any political work that’s on stage and have such respect for Kevin Loring and his team. In a way I feel like it enlivened our team to dive into the work and commit to live storytelling,” Parry told reporters on Tuesday.

“ … For me as a director, it gives me so much respect for actors to watch those actors on the last show continue to perform to full houses and make such beautiful performances in the face of some controversy surrounding the show. I was so impressed with their ability to deliver that wonderful important story.

With files from David Prisciak