At TAÉ from December 4, 2024: YAHNDAWA’: what we are. A mythical family saga!
From December 4 to 8, 2024, Théâtre Aux Écuries (TAÉ) presents the latest creation from Productions Menuentakuan: Yahndawa’ : ce que nous sommes by Marie-Josée Bastien, directed by Véronika Makdissi-Warren. This fictional family tale features an all-Indigenous cast, mainly Wendat artists. A co-production of Productions Menuentakuan, Théâtre du Trident and Théâtre Niveau Parking, the play is currently running at Le Trident until November 30, before opening in Montreal.
Yahndawa’ : ce que nous sommes reinterprets the life of Ludger Sarenhes Bastien – a great Huron-Wendat chief and successful businessman – and his descendants, as a legend, navigating between verisimilitude and fiction, where history is adorned with all that is cruel and mythical. The interwoven stories in this fresco, which unfolds over more than a hundred years, resonate, clash and respond to each other. And always, in the middle of the story, flows Yahndawa’, the majestic river that can change the course of every life, that can lead to a possible healing… to begin again in a different way.
Synopsis – Patriarch Ludger Sarenhes Bastien (Charles Bender) is a prosperous businessman of the last century who leads a battle against the city of Quebec for redress in the face of injustice. It is around this story that all the wefts of his descendants are woven. His son Armand (Marco Poulin) tries to escape his fate by fighting for a country that recognizes no rights for him. As for Adèle (Andrée Lévesque Sioui), she is caught up in a timeless past after denying her origins. Élisabeth (Marie-Josée Bastien) has fled to the other side of the continent, but must return to face those she left behind. Yandicha (Océane Kitura Bohémier-Tootoo) tries to find her way back to her nation’s traditions, and Agnolien (Andawa Laveau), the great-great-great grandson, saves his family’s heritage from a near-apocalyptic flood.
With Yahndawa’: ce que nous sommes, Marie-Josée Bastien and members of her family, including Menuentakuan’s co-artistic director and performer Charles Bender, offer us a work about the Wendat and their roots, about their power of resilience, about identity and the pride of a nation.
Les Productions Menuentakuan, resident company of Théâtre Aux Écuries and member of the artistic direction committee, propose, using the codes of theater and performance, to embody a meeting point between the culture of Canada’s First Nations and the other cultures that enrich the Canadian and Quebec identity. Yahndawa’: what we are is their first show to feature an all-Indigenous cast.
December 4 to 8, 2024 (6 performances)
Théâtre Aux Écuries
514 844-1811
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