This year’s peer assessment committee, Aaron Bushkowsky, Tai Amy Grauman and Julie Tamiko Manning, say:

"In a blistering indictment of the country we call Canada, Cliff Cardinal challenges us to ask ourselves what role we play and are prepared to play on the path forward. It spares no one, not even the performer himself. It’s a rant, a fool, a stand-up routine and an angry personal essay full of humour, insights and surprises."

Cliff Cardinal is a poet, actor, and playwright. Born on the Pine Ridge Indian Reservation, Cliff studied playwriting at the National Theatre School. He wrote and performed Huff, Cliff Cardinal’s CBC Special, The Land Acknowledgement and (Everyone I Love Has) A Terrible Fate (Befall Them). Cliff Cardinal and The Skylarks’ song "Suicidal Valentine" reached #6 on the Indigenous Music Countdown. He lives in Toronto, Ontario.

**

Imagine you could spend a day with any author, living or dead. Who would you choose…
Hubert Selby Jr.

what would you do…
Eat

and what would you learn?
I wonder.

What advice would you give your ten-year-old self about the future?
Keep doing what you’re doing.

Your play is a radical retelling of a piece that’s hundreds of years old. What was it like to bring your vision to life as a re-imagined work?
I dunno i never read it.

Who has been the biggest inspiration in your journey as a playwright.
Us.

What was the last book by a Canadian author that changed you in some way?
Life of Pi (Yann Martel)

**

Excerpt from William Shakespeare’s As You Like It, A Radical Retelling

Cliff: Hi, welcome to Crow’s Theatre’s presentation of As You Like It, by the great William Shakespeare. As well, you have the honour of seeing the show with the playwright responsible for the adaptation. I’m Cliff Cardinal.

    Beat.

To self-identify: I am Lakota, Dene, Cree, and my great-grandfather, on my mother’s side, his mother was one-quarter French.

    Beat.

. . . Or Ukrainian.

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We’re not sure . . . it was a long summer.

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The land I’m standing on is the traditional territory of many nations, including the Mississaugaus of the Credit, the Anishnabeg, the Huron, the Wendat, and the Haudenosaunee.
We are trespassing.

    Beat.

We can stay.

    Beat.

Hang out.
Enjoy the show.
Just don’t drill for oil.

    Beat.

Don’t get me wrong, I love the oil industry.

    Beat.

Did everyone hear me say that? "I love the oil industry."

    Beat.

Crow’s Theatre loves pipelines.

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Theatre in this country only goes so far without oil money.
You know how far theatre in this country goes without oil money?
The Winnipeg Fringe.

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So, I’m not up here going: "No blood for oil."

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I’m saying: "Some blood for oil."

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All right.
But it’s not just the drilling.
It’s the spilling.
You can’t drill without a spill.
For Indigenous people, the Earth is literally our mother.
Please don’t spill your hot oil on my mother’s coral reef.

    Beat.

Better if you just stay seated, in fact.

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The company has asked that you please turn off your phones.

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Actually, they didn’t ask, I just fuckin’ hate phones in theatres.
They piss me off: please turn them off.

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Let’s just be here, together, for a moment, and acknowledge the land.

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The land upon which we stand is old.
Older than the institutions that gather us today.
The land is older than I am good-looking.

    Beat.

Well . . .

    Beat.

Maybe not that old.