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Copper Thunderbird (Talonbooks $15.95)
The great Norval Morrisseau received his name Ahneesheenahpay, meaning Copper Thunderbird, after his mother took him to a medicine woman for treatment of a fever in 1950. Some elders argued he was not yet worthy of such a powerful name, but he recovered and was introduced to Ojibwa shamanism by his grandfather. Issues of identity resonated within Morrisseau ever since.
The remarkable, tormented life of Morrisseau, the man generally regarded as the Father of Contemporary First Nations art, is worthy of an opera, so Métis playwright Marie Clements of Galiano Island has fashioned a multi-leveled stage play, Copper Thunderbird (Talonbooks $15.95) to explore his complexity.
Copper Thunderbird relates a Faustian tale of the world-revered artist who became a Grand Shaman within the realm of Ojibwa cosmology while succumbing to the effects of family abuse, alcoholism and extreme poverty-including wanderings on the streets of Vancouver's Downtown Eastside.
The result is a composite vision of a fractured life that ranges from the Fort William Sanitarium in 1956 (where he was treated for TB) to the Sandy Lake Reserve near Lake Nipigon in 1965 to the Kenora Jail in 1973 to the Ste. Rose Catholic Detoxification Centre in 1975 and to Los Angeles in 1987.
Halfway through the play, when the voice of the young Morrisseau regrets selling his paintings, a Gallery Room Chorus echoes the opinions of white supporters and a Flooding Room Chorus represents the conflicting views of his Ojibwa community.
Clements depicts Morrisseau as an internally embattled visionary unable to come to grips with his overall character. Three Morrisseau characters-boy, young man and old man-hold lively debates over each development of his life, alternately defending and antagonizing one another and giving the impression that Morrisseau is passing his own judgments on himself.
In one rare moment, the Three Norvals speak as one, "I am Norval Morrisseau. I am an artist, a storyteller. I am a mystic. I am a very religious person. I am a free man, a force. I am humble. I am Jesus Christ. I am the Creator. I am an Indian and I will save myself.";
Born in 1962, Marie Clements founded urban ink productions, a Vancouver-based Aboriginal and multi-cultural production company that creates and produces Aboriginal works of theatre, music, film and video.
Recently Clements adapted her surrealistic play The Unnatural and Accidental Women into a screenplay called Unnatural and Accidental, the film version of which was screened at the Vancouver International Film Festival in 2006. It concerns a 30-year-old murder case involving female victims of violence in Vancouver's Skid Row.
978-0-88922-568-8
[BCBW 2008] "Art" "First Nations"
The remarkable, tormented life of Morrisseau, the man generally regarded as the Father of Contemporary First Nations art, is worthy of an opera, so Métis playwright Marie Clements of Galiano Island has fashioned a multi-leveled stage play, Copper Thunderbird (Talonbooks $15.95) to explore his complexity.
Copper Thunderbird relates a Faustian tale of the world-revered artist who became a Grand Shaman within the realm of Ojibwa cosmology while succumbing to the effects of family abuse, alcoholism and extreme poverty-including wanderings on the streets of Vancouver's Downtown Eastside.
The result is a composite vision of a fractured life that ranges from the Fort William Sanitarium in 1956 (where he was treated for TB) to the Sandy Lake Reserve near Lake Nipigon in 1965 to the Kenora Jail in 1973 to the Ste. Rose Catholic Detoxification Centre in 1975 and to Los Angeles in 1987.
Halfway through the play, when the voice of the young Morrisseau regrets selling his paintings, a Gallery Room Chorus echoes the opinions of white supporters and a Flooding Room Chorus represents the conflicting views of his Ojibwa community.
Clements depicts Morrisseau as an internally embattled visionary unable to come to grips with his overall character. Three Morrisseau characters-boy, young man and old man-hold lively debates over each development of his life, alternately defending and antagonizing one another and giving the impression that Morrisseau is passing his own judgments on himself.
In one rare moment, the Three Norvals speak as one, "I am Norval Morrisseau. I am an artist, a storyteller. I am a mystic. I am a very religious person. I am a free man, a force. I am humble. I am Jesus Christ. I am the Creator. I am an Indian and I will save myself.";
Born in 1962, Marie Clements founded urban ink productions, a Vancouver-based Aboriginal and multi-cultural production company that creates and produces Aboriginal works of theatre, music, film and video.
Recently Clements adapted her surrealistic play The Unnatural and Accidental Women into a screenplay called Unnatural and Accidental, the film version of which was screened at the Vancouver International Film Festival in 2006. It concerns a 30-year-old murder case involving female victims of violence in Vancouver's Skid Row.
978-0-88922-568-8
[BCBW 2008] "Art" "First Nations"
Submitted on March 7, 2008 in By David.
