Intrepid Theatre

A Farquhar Auditorium Voices in Circle presentation, supported by Intrepid Theatre. Tickets are sold through the Farquhar Auditorium box office, call 250-721-8480 or buy online.

A devastating yet laugh-out-loud examination of land acknowledgements as cultural and political practice.

Cultural provocateur Cliff Cardinal revisits Shakespeare’s timeless tale of mistaken identities, gentle ruses and banishment in this show that exults in difficult subject matter.

When Crow’s Theatre, one of Toronto’s most eclectic and adventurous companies, premiered this audacious new production, they said very little about it. All they revealed was that Cliff Cardinal was doing a “radical retelling of William Shakespeare’s As You Like It.” There were no further details, no cast list, nothing.

How – and why – would Cardinal, a young Indigenous playwright and actor of Cree and Lakota heritage, acclaimed for his acerbic humour and willingness to deal with raw emotions and difficult subject matter, going to retell one of Shakespeare’s most accessible and whimsical plays?

Dubbed “the Canadian arts surprise of the year” by The Globe and Mail, Cardinal’s brilliant play, The Land Acknowledgement or As You Like It, offers you the unvarnished truth of the state of the reconciliation process between Indigenous communities and colonial settlers in Canada. When the curtains rise, prepare for Shakespeare as you’ve never seen him before and likely never will again.

Winner of the 2023 Governor General’s Literary Award for Drama. Biography

About the artist

Named by The Globe and Mail as a Canadian Cultural Icon in 2022, Cliff Cardinal is a polarizing writer and performer known for his black humour and compassionate poeticism. His AS YOU LIKE IT, A RADICAL RETELLING has been performed across Canada, was shortlisted for the Ontario Trillium Book Award, and was the recipient of the prestigious Governor General’s Literary Award for Drama.

Other solo theatre productions including Stitch, Huff, Cliff Cardinal’s CBC Special, and (Everyone I Love Has) A Terrible Fate (Befall Them) have toured across Canada and won numerous awards. He is an associate artist at Video Cabaret where he develops his new work.

Born on the Pine Ridge Indian Reservation, he studied playwriting at the National Theatre School of Canada and fronts the hilarious and nefarious Cliff Cardinal and The Skylarks. Cardinal’s first multi-character play, Too Good To Be True, opened VideoCabaret’s 2019 season at The Busy Street Theatre in Toronto with Cardinal himself directing. A workshop version of the script debuted at Summerworks ’13, where NOW Magazine said, “This captivating tale of an off-grid mother and her desperate children solidifies Cardinal as one of the most talented and intriguing writers in the country.” Prior to premiering AS YOU LIKE IT, A RADICAL RETELLING, Cardinal was best known for his one-man play Huff, which he has performed over 200 times. This harrowing yet hilarious show about youth who abuse solvent, at high risk of suicide won the Buddies in Bad Times’ Vanguard Award for Risk and Innovation, two Dora Mavor Moore Awards (Outstanding Performance, Outstanding New Play), RBC’s Emerging Playwright Award, The Lustrum Award (which recognizes the greatest moments at the Edinburgh Fringe Festival) and was shortlisted for Amnesty International’s Freedom of Expression Award. The production garnered a five-star review in The Guardian Observer titled “a hard-hitting tour de force.”