'Reasonable Doubt': What people are saying about the new Boushie/Stanley 'documentary play'

Dory Harder followed the Gerald Stanley trial two years ago. But maybe not well enough, she said last night. She'd just taken in both acts of Reasonable Doubt. 

"There were some parts that were still very new to me," Harder said. 

The new "documentary play," which has its grand opening at Saskatoon's Persephone Theatre Friday night, uses the 2018 murder trial to tackle the sensitive topic of Saskatchewan race relations. 

Colten Boushie, 22, was shot and killed after he and four others from the Red Pheasant Cree Nation drove onto Stanley's farm in August 2016. An altercation occurred between the people in the SUV and Stanley, his son and his wife.

A jury found Stanley, 56, not guilty of second-degree murder, igniting a firestorm of debate in the weeks that followed. 

"This isn't the first time I've heard this story," said Madeline Kennedy of Little Pine First Nation. She attended Thursday's preview. 

"It's not shocking to me or surprising to me but it's kind of stirring up all the emotions a little," Kennedy said.

That's exactly what Joel Bernbaum wants. 

As Reasonable Doubt's "interviewer-editor," Bernbaum mined hundreds of pages of trial transcript and placed much verbatim dialogue in the mouths of the play's six performers. Under the direction of Yvette Nolan, an Algonquin woman, the cast re-enacts such scenes as the cross-examination of Boushie's friends and Stanley's testimony that he accidentally shot Boushie.   

• What happened on Gerald Stanley's farm the day Colten Boushie was shot, as told by witnesses

Bernbaum also interviewed close to 300 Saskatchewan residents to get their views on the trial. Many of them are from Saskatoon and come from all walks of life: farmers, homeless people, a policewoman, Grade 6 students, journalists who covered the trial and even those who watched the trial inside from the courtroom, like Boushie's eagle-feather-holding uncle, Alvin Baptiste. 

• 'Hearsay' from Reddit and other things the Gerald Stanley trial jury didn't hear

The performers embody all the interview subjects too, with people's first names, age ranges and ethnicity ("Caucasian", "Indigenous" and so on) projected above the actors as each interviewee's experience or viewpoint is shared.

Bernbaum said he was tweaking the script as late as Wednesday night. 

Dene Robillard, from Black Lake First Nation and Cowessess First Nation, said he liked the play's "creative" approach, including the songs by Cree composer Lancelot Knight.

"It's certainly insightful for sure to kind of see that perspective," Robillard said. "The various performances and the musical score are very well thought out and add to the whole atmosphere."

Thursday night's audience was primarily over-40 and mostly white, as acknowledged during the "optional audience conversation" that followed the play. One of the discussion's moderators said efforts are being made to bring in people from smaller communities, at a lower ticket cost ($15 instead of the regular $30 price). 

One audience woman asked if she could pay money in advance to pay it forward for other spectators, and was told she could. 

If someone comes to the box office wanting to see Reasonable Doubt and there's room, the theatre will let them in, another moderator said. 

Not everybody appeared keen to share their opinions about the play. "Still processing," said one man who declined to give his name. Some didn't want to say anything at all as they shuffled out of the theatre. 

But Harder didn't hold back. 

"I think it was extremely well done," she said. "I think it just brought to the fore that there is hurt on all around. Everyone is hurting and we all share some of the blame. But there's no quick fixes here."

One audience member who recently moved from Winnipeg said during the post-show talk that he still felt cynical about it all.

Long-distance theatregoer

Angela Heck drove from Winnipeg to see the play, both because she knows one of its creators and because of recent coverage in the Globe and Mail. Heck even pulled her 15-year-old daughter, Thea Hughes, out of school for the trip. 

"It's amazingly powerful and very thought-provoking," she said of the play. 

Friday's grand opening is drawing out a long list of dignitaries, including FSIN chief Bobby Cameron, Saskatoon Mayor Charlie Clark and Saskatchewan Justice Minister Don Morgan.

A representative of the RCMP — which investigated Boushie's death and informed his mother of the shooting (one of the scenes discussed in the play) — is also expected there.