THEATRE PREVIEW
FEBRUARY 2025 | Volume 248

Little Red Warrior and His Lawyer
by Kevin Koring
Savage Society & Belfry Theater
in assoc w/ NAC Indigenous Theater & Theater Calgary
The Cultch
York Theater
Mar. 6-16
From $29
www.thecultch.com or 604-251-1363
BUY TICKETS
Kevin Loring's wickedly funny trickster land claim fable returns to the York Theatre!
The Cultch is thrilled to present Kevin Loring's Little Red Warrior & His Lawyer, a co-production from Savage Society (Vancouver) and Belfry Theatre (Victoria), in association with NAC Indigenous Theatre (Ottawa) and Theatre Calgary. Little Red Warrior & His Lawyer will play at the York Theatre—on the unceded territories of the xʷməθkʷəy̓əm (Musqueam), Sḵwx̱wú7mesh (Squamish), and səlilwətaɬ (Tsleil-Waututh) Nations—from March 6-16, 2025.
When Little Red Warrior, the last remaining member of the Little Red Warrior First Nation, discovers construction has begun on his ancestral lands, he explodes in a fit of rage, attacks an engineer, gets arrested, thrown in jail, and assigned a court-appointed lawyer—Larry. Much to the dismay of his wife, Larry invites a displaced Little Red Warrior to stay with them. But when you invite a coyote into your coop, he might just walk away with your chickens.
Kevin Loring, an award-winning Nlaka'pamux playwright from the Lytton First Nation, has been creating impactful theatre for decades. His play Where The Blood Mixes (2009) won the Governor General Award for English-language drama and the Jessie Richardson Award for Outstanding Original Script; and Thanks for Giving, was shortlisted for the Governor General's Award for Drama. Little Red Warrior & His Lawyer was originally conceived in the early 2000s while Loring was at Langara College. "I was taking a playwriting class and wanted to write a comedy about land claims," says Loring. "Through these classic European farces, mixed with the Coyote Trickster stories of my own culture, filtered through my own experience, Little Red Warrior came out." Two decades later, after working on other projects, Loring was commissioned by Western Canada Theatre and Savage Society to revisit this Trickster comedy. It premiered with a short and highly received tour in 2022—including a stop at the York Theatre—gaining wide praise from audiences and critics alike.
This March, as part of a tour that stops in Kamloops and Oliver, Little Red Warrior & His Lawyer plays on The Cultch's York Theatre in East Vancouver once more with a mostly returning cast—Nick Miami Benz, Luisa Jojic, Kevin McNulty, Shekhar Paleja, and Gordon Patrick White as Little Red.
"We are so excited to have Kevin Loring's Little Red Warrior & His Lawyer back at the York Theatre," says The Cultch's Executive Director Heather Redfern. "It was a big fan favourite with our audiences in 2022, and such a needed hit of comedy for folks who were returning to the theatre for the first time after the pandemic. When we were programming this 24/25 season it felt like a perfect fit to have this hilarious show back to warm up our spring."
"Little Red Warrior and His Lawyer is a rare gem that uses dark, tongue-in-cheek humour to get to the core of the issues that plague our world." —Maira Hassan, The Vancouver Arts Review
"Little Red Warrior and His Lawyer is so relentlessly irreverent and surprising... For the majority of the show, I was grinning my face off." —Colin Thomas
"I can't say more for fear of spoiling it, but it's mind-blowing and fabulous." —Jerry Wasserman, Vancouverplays
Kevin Loring - Playwright & Director
Gordon Patrick White - Little Red Warrior
Nick Miami Benz - Lizzy
Luisa Jojic - Desdemona
Kevin McNulty - Floyd
Shekhar Paleja - Larry
John Doucet - Set Design
Samantha McCue - Costume Design
Jeff Harrison - Lighting Design
Troy Slocum - Sound Design
Candelario Andrade - Projection Design
Angela Beaulieu - Stage Manager
Geoff Jones - Assistant Stage Manager
WHEN: MAR 6-16, 2025
Thursday, March 6, 7:30 PM—Opening
Friday, March 7, 7:30 PM
Saturday, March 8, 7:30 PM
Sunday, March 9, 2:00 PM—Talkback
Tuesday, March 11, 7:30 PM—Talkback/Community Pricing
Wednesday, March 12, 7:30 PM
Thursday, March 13, 7:30 PM
Friday, March 14, 7:30 PM
Saturday, March 15, 2:00 PM
Saturday, March 15, 7:30 PM
Sunday, March 16, 2:00 PM
WHERE: York Theatre, 639 Commercial Drive, Vancouver, B.C.
TICKETS: Tickets from $29. Single tickets on sale now through The Cultch's Box Office: 604-251-1363 or thecultch.com/event/little-red-warrior-his-lawyer
ABOUT SAVAGE SOCIETY:
Telling our own stories sourcing traditional and contemporary Indigenous perspectives, Savage Society was created in 2004 for members to produce their own stories as practising Indigenous Theatre and Film Artists. Artistic Director Kevin Loring is a member of the Nlaka'pamux Nation from the Lytton First Nation in British Columbia.
We develop work that reflects our world view, sourcing traditional stories and cosmologies and our contemporary realities as Indigenous people for both professional and community settings.
ABOUT THE CULTCH:
Since 1973, The Cultch (formally the Vancouver East Cultural Centre) has been one of Vancouver's most diverse and innovative arts and cultural hubs. The organisation operates three theatrical venues, a gallery, various ancillary spaces in the heart of East Vancouver, as well as digital programming through The Cultch Online that reaches international audiences. The Cultch offers dynamic contemporary programming in theatre, dance, music, and the visual arts, bringing world-class cultural presentations to thousands of citizens each year through its own programming and through providing rental opportunities for community users. Our purpose is to provide a venue for performance that serves a diverse and engaged public and provides space for artistic experimentation and development, building an audience for local companies and presenting cutting-edge national and international work.
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