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by Drew Hayden Taylor, directed by Patti Shaughnessy

Lighthouse Festival, Lighthouse Festival Theatre, Port Dover

June 17–July 4, 2026;

Roselawn Theatre, Port Colborne

July 8–19, 2026

Cecil: “If you want to look at an ancient, broken-down, Indian ruin, we can go visit your cousin”

The Lighthouse Festival has made an inspired choice in programming Drew Hayden Taylor’s 2015 comedy Crees in the Caribbean for its 2026 season. Taylor, an Ojibway from the Curve Lake First Nations in Ontario, writes from a perspective seldom represented in summer theatre. It is good finally to see one of his plays at the Lighthouse Festival, especially one so well written and so well performed.

Taylor has explained how he got his idea for the play, “I’ve been to Mexico many times, and I frequently wonder how my grandparents would react. To the best of my knowledge, they never left the county. That was the genesis”.

In CITC, Taylor presents us with an Indigenous couple who are taking their very first vacation outside of Canada. Evie and Cecil Poundmaker’s children have given their parents this trip to celebrate their 35th wedding anniversary. The Poundmakers, the Crees of the title, have not only never travelled outside Canada but have seldom left their home in Saskatchewan. When Evie sees the waves of the Caribbean for the first time the sight makes her think of the waves the wind makes when it blows through wheat.

The problem is that while Evie is quite happy to try something new, Cecil is not happy at all. He wants to keep the hotel curtains closed so as not to see the sun. He wants the windows closed so as not to hear the ocean. All he wants to do is stay in the hotel room and watch television, though, unfortunately, all the shows he might watch, like sports, are in Spanish.

Much of Act 1 of the two-act play involves Evie’s attempts to solve the mystery of why Cecil is making no attempt to enjoy the gift their children have given them. The rest of Act 1 involves Evie’s growing friendship with the young woman, Manuela, assigned as housekeeper to their room. Because Evie, among many other jobs, has been a cleaner and a midwife and because Evie is simply particularly observant, Evie notices when Manuela looks at herself in the mirror and touches her stomach. Evie guesses correctly that Manuela is pregnant and, when Manuela acts ashamed, Evie further guesses correctly that this pregnancy was not planned and that the father has no intention of marrying Manuela.

Evie tries to get to know Manuela better, but the hotel has discouraged staff from becoming too familiar with the guests. Evie has to balance her desire to help Manuela with Manuela’s need not to lose her job.

Taylor’s own website mentions that “Drew has spent the last two decades travelling the world and writing about it from the Aboriginal perspective. Playwright, author, columnist, film maker and lecturer, he has managed to bridge the gap between cultures by tickling the funny bone”. Taylor’s point of view is thus quite different from that of certain young Indigenous playwrights who recently have forbidden non-Native theatre critics from reviewing their plays on the grounds that only Indigenous critics will be able to understand them fully.

“Bridging the gap”, in contrast, is exactly what CITC is about. You could say that the play is actually a demonstration of how people from different cultures can bridge the gap between them, though in CITC Taylor shows that it is not only humour but empathy that brings people together.

Taylor shows that the Poundmakers on arrival in Mexico are as filled with stereotypical views of Mexico and Mexicans as people of any other ethnicities who have never travelled or met people from the destination they are visiting. Cecil says he doesn’t need to go to Mexico to try the food because he’s eaten at Taco Bell. Yet, the longer Evie and Cecil are in Mexico and the more they get to know Manuela, the more their pre-conceived notions about Mexicans disappear. “There are people like this back home” becomes a refrain throughout the action.

Evie is particularly interested in Manuela because Evie has encountered so many similar cases like Manuela’s back home. Evie says that she can tell that Manuela must have some indigenous blood in her to which Manuela replies that almost all Mexican do, except that the father of her child claims that he is pure Spanish. Evie has encountered that sort of prejudicial boast back home, too. Later, when Cecil learns Manuela’s full story, he takes matters into his own hands exactly as he would back home.

Director Patti Shaughnessy, a member of the Michi Saagig Anishnaabeg from Curve Lake First Nation, draws completely unforced performances from the three cast members. It helps that Taylor has a gift for writing eminently natural dialogue, with the humour proceeding not from jokes but from the contrast of personalities. Shaughnessy preserves this naturalness both in dialogue and in the characters’ movements and gestures. Shaughnessy makes certain that whatever Evie and Cecil say to each other the depth of their love in never in doubt.

Krystle Pederson brings out Evie’s endearing personality from the start. Pederson makes clear that though she may nag Cecil about his odd lack of interest in enjoying his vacation, she does so because she truly cares about Cecil and is frustrated with his inherent macho inability to talk about his feelings. We may find Evie’s preoccupation with Manuela rather intrusive, but Pederson makes us understand that caring for other people is simply part of who Evie is.

Lawrence Bayne is excellent as Cecil. I think we all know people who are intent on shutting themselves off from new experiences. This is initially how we interpret Cecil’s actions, but due to the worry Pederson brings out in Evie’s voice we start to think that Cecil’s actions may have a deeper cause. Once this mystery is solved, Bayne has the chance to show off quite a different side of Cecil in Act 2, one we could hardly have imagined existed in Act 1. Bayne manifests this not merely in Cecil’s rediscovered joy in life but most movingly in Cecil’s finally being able to express his deepest emotions in a scene that exposes the depth underlying the whole play.

Andrea Cabeza is a joy as Manuela, even if that character is deeply unhappy during most of the action. The reason for this seeming contradiction is that Cabeza emphasizes Manuela’s innocence right from the start. Just as Manuela draws Evie’s concern, she also draws ours so that we become deeply investing in Manuela’s finding some solution, if only in believing in herself, that will back her self-respect.

Just as the Crees in Taylor’s play create a bond between themselves and Manuela, they also create a bond between themselves and the audience. This is a play that combines both happiness and sadness, just like life. Let’s hope that CITC’s success at the Lighthouse Festival will encourage other theatres to take up a play that so strongly promotes the virtues of understanding and caring.

Christopher Hoile

Photos: Krystle Pederson as Evie and Lawrence Bayne as Cecil; Krystle Pederson as Evie; Lawrence Bayne as Cecil; Andrea Cabeza as Manuela and Lawrence Bayne as Cecil. © 2026 Lighthouse Festival.

For tickets visit: lighthousetheatre.com.