Play tells tough story of violence against Native women

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"I'm every woman," sings one of the characters in Marie Clement's play, The Unnatural and Accidental Women. The play, which opened in Toronto Nov. 18 and ran until Dec. 5, is based on a true story and takes place in Vancouver's downtown east side.

Clement shows us the last days in the lives of several women who were lured to their deaths by Gilbert Paul Jordan..Plying them with alcohol, paying them to drink a 26 or 40-ouncer non-stop, Jordan then forced more alcohol down the throats of his victims, who all died of alcohol poisoning. The title "unnatural and accidental" comes from the words used by the coroner to describe the circumstances surrounding the deaths.

We follow the story through the eyes of a young woman named Rebecca (portrayed by Lisa Ravensbergen in a very strong performance) as she searches for the mother who abandoned her family.

It's a tough story to tell and it's hard to watch the events unfold, but Clements gives names, individuality and humanity back to women who had become invisible to society long before their deaths. "There is joy" in the play, says Native Earth artistic director Yvette Nolan, and we also find humour, compassion, and caring. Muriel Miguel gives a fine performance as Aunt Shadie, Rebecca's mother and a "den mother" to the other women.

The strong cast also featured Valerie Buhagiar, Deborah Castello, Gloria May Eshkibok, Michelle Latimer, Jarrod MacLean, Gail Maurice, Sarah Podemski, Patti Shaughnessy, Gene Pyrz and Michaela Washburn.

Clements tackles strong subjects in her plays. She also wrote Burning Vision, about the uranium mine in Northern Canada that supplied the ore to build the atomic bombs used against Japan in the Second World War.

The Unnatural and Accidental Women asks a lot of tough questions about relationships between men and women, urban and non-urban Native people, and especially between Native and mainstream society. Rebecca's search for her mother leads her to realize how Native peoples have been displaced, how cities have displaced the land. To Nolan, The Unnatural and Accidental Women asks us, "Is this the cost of being uprooted?" If so, Nolan wonders, "how do we get back to being connected?"

While the play focuses on the women who were killed by Jordan, Nolan says the play is "timely."

Women-often Native women-"are still disappearing." The Native Women's Association estimates the number of Native women who have gone missing over the past 20 years at more than 500. Nolan wonders how society could ignore the deaths for so long. She would like to see "people be responsible for each other," and asks, "What kind of Canada do we want?"

The real-life Jordan responsible for the deaths portrayed in the play served six years in prison on one count of manslaughter. In the play, Rebecca narrowly escapes becoming another of the "accidental and unnatural women" when she encounters Jordan by accident after losing her wallet. She becomes something of an avenging angel when the task of exacting revenge for the murdered women falls to her.

The death of Jordan at the hands of Rebecca was one reason Nolan found the play challenging. She "struggled with the end of the play" but "felt it gave closure to the women," she said.

"We don't get justice. On the stage, maybe, that's where we get our justice."

Nolan said she is attracted to the idea of theatre as a forum for social change.

"Theatre is so powerful. Live performance is so powerful. It can change people. It can change the world."