
Editor’s Note: ‘Where Have All the Buffalo Gone’ has been postponed due to unforeseen circumstances, the E.A. Rawlinson Centre has announced. The new show date is Tuesday, Feb. 11.
Emokhare Paul Anthony
Daily Herald
Prince Albert theatre lovers will have plenty to cheer about when Axis Theatre performers from Vancouver hit the stage to present “Where Have All the Buffalo Gone” at the E.A. Rawlinson Centre.
“Where Have All the Buffalo gone” is a Métis love-story about two Star People and a Buffalo who fall to earth and continue to reconnect throughout history.
The play covers seven periods of Métis history, including the emergence of the Métis on the plains, the rise of the fur trade, the political rise of the Métis Association of Alberta, and of course the disappearance of the buffalo.
The play specifically focuses on the stories from the Callihoo family, who descend from Northwest Company employee Louis Callihoo.
“It feels fantastic to be able to tell the story of the Metis people from the perspective of someone who has the history of the Metis people in them and everyone who’s mentioned in the play is part of her family,” Axis Theatre artistic director and show co-director Chris McGregor said. “(There’s) a little bit of fiction in the characters, but a lot of the characters are real.”
This original play for young audiences explores the loves, the losses and the fight of Treaty 6’s Métis people, their love and kinship to the buffalo.
McGregor said it was great to dig into that history. He also liked that the play focuses on a woman’s point of view.
“We get to see the fact that it is the struggles and trials and tribulations of not just the men but also the women’s perspective as well,” he said.
McGregor said what attracted him to the story was there’s going to be a life-size puppet of a buffalo and since he is a big fan of the animal.
McGregor was also interested in working with Tai Amy Grauman, who wrote the play. Grauman was one of McGregor’s students at UBC and had worked together on plays before.
“We got to know each other quite well. We just really like working with Tai and when she started working on this particular piece, I was really excited about the fact that it is true based on true facts that happened around Canada, and being able to work with some wonderful Metis artists,” he explained.
“Where Have All the Buffalo Gone” first hit the stage in April 2024. Prince Albert is the final stop on the group’s Alberta and Saskatchewan tour, which began on Jan. 21 in Medicine Hat.
“I’m really, really proud of the piece,” McGregor added. “I was really nervous about it being in front of audiences because it’s not something that is typical for us to do, but it seems to be taking off really, really well.
“The feedback has been way more phenomenal than any other piece that I’ve done in the last 10 years I’ve been here. It’s really struck a chord with not just people who are a Métis, but people who are going, ‘I had no idea that this is the world that they had to live through.’ It’s a great educational piece, an entertaining piece, and it’s very theatrical, and I think the actors are doing phenomenal job in keeping it fresh every time they do it.”
Axis Theatre will perform “Where Have All the Buffalo Gone” at the E.A. Rawlinson Centre on Monday, Feb. 3. The show starts at 7:30 p.m. There will also be a show for schools only at 1:30 p.m.
–with files from Jason Kerr/Daily Herald