What do you do when your baby sister is murdered by a monster? How can you possibly respond to something so horrifying, traumatising and unfair? Would you find some way of moving on, or would you do all you can to exact revenge?
That's the crisis faced by Lila, the central figure and narrator of this gripping one-woman show from Canada. Performed by Cherish Violet Blood and penned by Tara Beagan, the play takes its audience on an extraordinary ride that's constantly entertaining despite its dark and difficult subject matter: the ongoing murder of Indigenous women both in Canada and across the world.
When we saw the show at this year's Sydney Festival, we wrote in a four-star review:
"It’s a brilliantly structured monologue, tracing Lila and Hammy’s life and the traumas they’ve suffered, slowly ramping up over the course of the play. But it’s punctuated with lightness – just when the darkness starts to suffocate – and evocative prose that brings Canada’s wilder corners to life on stage."
This is a gorgeously crafted piece of theatre and our only word of advice would be to take those content warnings seriously. This isn't one for audience members who are easily made queasy.