On November 7th, Andrew and I attended the world premiere of The Recipe at the Royal Manitoba Theatre Centre, and if you’re in Manitoba before the show closes on November 23rd, I suggest you do the same.
I’m going to pretend you don’t know what I’m talking about. Because, even though I am acquainted with the playwright, Armin Wiebe, I still thought this play was about the kind of recipe people protect, fight over, and share from generation to generation. Well, actually… now that I think of it, that’s pretty much exactly what this is about. But not in the way you think.
This ain’t your grandma’s super-secret borscht recipe or whatever.
Rather, and I’m just gonna say it, the subject of The Recipe harkens back to the subject of a little ol’ post I wrote after a trip to the Mennonite Heritage Archives back in 2018. And no, the award-winning author Armin Wiebe never did read that post, haha. Rather, he attended a conference in which MHA Archivist Conrad Stoesz talked about exactly this.
To be all too terribly honest, I’ve been too sucked into scrolling on Instagram to get much reading done. Or writing for that matter. So I’ve only read one book by Armin Wiebe, and it’s not his famous Salvation of Yasch Siemens. (Yet.) That book established the universe of Yasch and Oata, which feels a lot like the West Reserve. How do I know? I’ve listened to Armin read his work, many times. So I’m privileged to know how these characters talk and maybe even think on occasion. A lot of time has passed since Armin first wrote about Oata and Yasch, and from what I understand, while the first story had been told from the perspective of Yasch, Armin’s imagination has been captured by the character of Oata. “She won’t leave me alone,” says Armin. So this play, The Recipe, centers on Oata’s voice.
Here’s a bit of the notes I wrote from Armin’s talk at the CTMS conference this past October. According to what I scrawled in my notebook, Armin said:
- The West Reserve is full of stories that haven’t been heard.
- If I don’t tell this, no one will ever know.
- Art isn’t a one-way street. I don’t know what the reader will bring to my writing.
- Why bother? Right now, there’s someone out there with a wound the shape of your words.
- My work is as celebratory as rhubarb platz.
- Moonlight Sonata of Beethoven Blatz was a play where everyone laughed, but the next day wanted their money back. (Note: Because upon reflection, they were ashamed that they had found it hilarious.)
- There is confusion/tension of Mennonite culture vs religion.
- Efforts have been made to suppress the folk culture of the Mennonites.
So take that smattering of thoughts that appealed to me, that I frantically tried to capture in my notebook, and apply it to The Recipe. Step into this strangely familiar world, and encounter a new but old but new story, expressed on the stage. (I was going to say “beautifully expressed” but that might give you the wrong idea. I do think it’s beautifully expressed, but not in, like, the way of Giselle or something, you know?)
Also a note on the stage design: I loved it. How it evoked the prairie skyscape, its fields and roads and… manure piles. Yes really. I loved it.
Go experience The Recipe. Its last showing is November 23rd. Tickets available on the Royal Manitoba Theatre Centre website.