Niagara play Métis Nutcracker tells parallel stories of colonization and war in Ukraine

When the Métis Nutcracker opens this weekend in St. Catharines, Ont., playwright Matthew MacKenzie hopes the audience will get swept away in the magical realism of the show – while also learning about colonialism, the war in Ukraine and the cultures of several Indigenous communities from Turtle Island.

The play, intended for children and families, runs Friday through Sunday at Brock University’s Marilyn I. Walker Theatre, in addition to two sold-out school-day shows this week.

In the world MacKenzie created, two children come to Turtle Island, or North America, to escape the buffoonish villain The Rat King, who has invaded their pine forest.

They are led by the Métis Nutcracker on a journey discovering the communities, creatures and plants who inhabit their new land, with Métis, Kanien'kehá:ka (Mohawk) and Ojibwe traditions among those featured in the show.

“They visit the land of flowers, the land of berries, the land of pine cones, and the land of snowflakes,” said MacKenzie, a member of the Métis Nation of Alberta who teaches Contemporary Canadian Indigenous Theatre at Brock.

“They travel in the four directions and learn about the sacred medicines and about some of the nations that call Turtle Island home.”

It is directed by Monica Dottor and features Nicole Joy-Fraser as the Nutcracker. In this version, the Nutcracker is not a toy soldier, but a bird – a Clark's Nutcracker, a bird found in the Alberta Rocky Mountains, MacKenzie said. 

“That bird was actually misnamed by [American explorers] Lewis and Clark and is actually a kind of crow,” said MacKenzie, noting the play explores themes of colonization on several levels – including Russia’s invasion in Ukraine – in a way that is age-appropriate for children, its target audience. 

The two children featured in the story, Tatiana and Vanya, are Ukrainian refugees, a detail drawn from MacKenzie’s real life as well.

His son, who is nearly five years old, is Métis-Ukrainian. He said the Rat King can represent Russian president Vladimir Putin, but also European colonizers in Turtle Island, depending on how one views the narrative.

“This was a really special opportunity to teach him about his own Indigeneity and also what's what's going on in Ukraine, because hopefully by the time he's an adult or old enough to remember things, the war will have ended there,” MacKenzie said. 

“When you have the Rat King who's coming and he's trying to steal these kids, that can just sound like a kid’s story, but when you know that the Russians have actually kidnapped and taken thousands and thousands of Ukrainian children, that strikes quite close to home,” he said.

Molly Solomon, a third-year dramatic arts student who plays the Maple Sugar Fairy in the show, is from Wiarton, Ont., with family roots in the nearby Chippewas of Nawash Unceded First Nation.

Solomon said it’s been fun to share her Ojibwe culture (Chippewa and Ojibwe are different versions of the same word) with the rest of the team working on the play.