Thicker Than Water

At the Factory Theatre, I saw a touring production of Where The Blood Mixes. This play, written by Kevin Loring, won the 2009 Governor General's Literary Award for Drama.

Somewhere in B.C., two Native men, Floyd (Billy Merasty) and Mooch (Ben Cardinal), spend their days lounging around and drinking at a bar owned by George (Tom McBeath), a white man. Floyd, a retired rail-road worker, is generally taciturn though given to witty put-downs of his friend. Mooch used to be a logger. He now lives up to his name, sponging off Floyd and stealing money from his girlfriend, the long-suffering June (Margo Kane). Jason Burnstick provides the music, playing on his many acoustic guitars, ostensibly as a musician at the bar.

The men trade tall tales, insults, and well-trodden arguments. Though their conversations are initially funny and profane, the audience begins to sense a darkness in their lives. The disturbing flashbacks and fleeting dreams hint at some reasons for their wastrel idleness. They joke about the settlement they'll be receiving from the government for the residential school abuses, but the jokes aren't quite so funny.

The tension and mystery ratchet up when we discover that a young woman name Christine (Kim Harvey) is coming to visit Floyd. It turns out Floyd gave her up long ago to foster care. Why? How? Everything comes to a head and we understand the long shadow that the residential school experience has cast over the lives of Floyd, Mooch, June and even unto the next generation in Christine.

The men fish at Kumsheen, the place where two rivers meet. But some native elders say Kumsheen say it is actually the place inside the heart where the blood mixes. Water carries secret, and so does blood.

It was quite an emotional play for both the actors and the audience. Many needed kleenex and hankerchiefs. I got teary-eyed myself at a cathartic moment. It was probably a personal play for many too. On my way out, I overheard an older man saying to a woman as they embraced: "That's your story."