About the Play:

Little Red Warrior and His Lawyer: A Trickster Land Claim Fable is a full-length dramatic comedy by Kevin Loring. Little Red, the last remaining member of his tribe, discovers a developer has begun construction on his traditional territory. Enraged, he attacks one of their engineers, is arrested and assigned a court-appointed lawyer. Since Red no longer has a place to live, the lawyer and his wife invite him to stay with them. But as they soon find out, when you invite a coyote into the coop, don't be surprised if he walks away with your chickens.

Little Red Warrior and His Lawyer is a biting satirical fable about power, politics and procreation. Little Red is the last remaining member of the Little Red Warrior First Nation. One day he is arrested for assault and trespassing on his own Ancestral Lands after he discovers that the development firm Smith, Smyth and Goldsmithe has begun construction there and attacks one of the engineers in a fit of rage. In jail he meets his court-appointed lawyer, Larry, who agrees to help Little Red get back his Land Rights. Larry convinces his wife, Desdemona, to allow Little Red to move into their basement while they sort out his case. Desdemona and Little Red strike up an uneasy relationship as, despite herself, Desdemona is increasingly hypnotized by Little Red's "Indigenous charisma". While sparks fly between them, Larry prepares to fight for Little Red's Land Rights. When an unexpected intervention by a greater power occurs in the court case, nothing will ever be the same.

The Indigenous Theatre at National Arts Centre (NAC) in Ottawa facilitated a livestream reading of Little Red Warrior and His Lawyer in January 2021, when theatres across Canada were closed during the COVID-19 pandemic.

Cast: 1 person of any gender in drag, 1 settler female, 1 Indigenous male, and 2 settler male

About the Playwright:

Kevin Loring is an accomplished Canadian playwright, actor and director. As an actor, he has performed on stages across the Canada, on radio, in animation, and on the large and small screens. He was the winner of the Governor General’s Award for English Language Drama for his outstanding first play, Where the Blood Mixes in 2009, as well as the Jessie Richardson Award for Outstanding Original Script, and the Sydney J. Risk Prize for Outstanding Original Script by an Emerging Playwright. A Nlaka'pamux from the Lytton First Nation (previously known as the Thompson) in British Columbia, he is a graduate of Studio 58 and the Ensemble Training Program through Full Circle First Nations Performance. In 2017 he was appointed as the first Artistic Director of Indigenous Theatre at the National Arts Centre of Canada (NAC).