The Land Acknowledgement or As You Like It
A Radical Retelling by Cliff Cardinal
Shakespeare’s timeless tale of mistaken identities, gentle ruses, banishment, and forgiveness takes on an entirely different meaning in this daring new retelling.
Crow’s Theatre, one of Toronto’s most eclectic and adventuresome companies, decided to begin with an audacious new show. They said very little about it. Only that it was a 'radical retelling by Cliff Cardinal' of William Shakespeare’s As You Like It. There were no further details, no cast list, nothing.
How – and why - was Cardinal, a young Indigenous playwright and actor of Cree and Lakota heritage, someone 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?
Called 'the Canadian arts surprise of the year' Cardinal's brilliant play, The Land Acknowledgement or As You Like It, offers us the unvarnished truth of the state of the reconciliation process between Indigenous communities and colonial settlers in Canada. When the curtains rise, you can be certain that it’s Shakespeare as you’ve never seen it before and certainly never will again.
‘A liberating night at the theatre. Brutally funny and honest’The Globe and Mail Critic’s Pick
'Cardinal's masterful use of dark comedy throughout the work helps audiences navigate the lessons woven into every part of the story'Broadway World
'unlike any other production of the play, past or future'Now Toronto
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