UW’s Th’owxiya: The Hungry Feast Dish explores the light and darkness within all of us

How do you appease a hunger that cannot be satisfied? From the Kwantlen First Nation village of Squa’lets, the tale of Th’owxiya seeks to answer this paradigm lying at the centre of our need for endless consumption. The powerful spirit Th’owxiya inhabits a bountiful feast dish, yet it can only temporarily divert her hunger for child flesh. When the feast dish is stolen from, a grand journey is embarked upon in order to achieve the impossible: appeasing the grand, evil, cannibalistic spirit. The journey is filled with surprises – you never know what woodland creatures and spirits might be encountered along the way. The actress playing the role of Th’owxiya, Arts student Becca Zadorsky, describes the central themes of the production as “giving back to the Earth, coming together as a community and finding the courage to stand up for what is right.” 

Directed by Andy Houston, early stages of production began in the spring 2024 term, with auditions being held during the first week of fall term. With an intimate cast of only six actors, every person has quite a bit of heavy lifting to do. This comes in both a literal and metaphorical sense, as mask work and puppetry is foundational to this production. The actors who play both animals and storytellers are therefore tasked with the challenge of making objects come to life, signalling their transition from one form to another. 

Zadorsky described the masks as “a fully realized other character — the audience has to believe that the masks are alive.” With Th’owxiya being the only non-animal character, Zadorsky distinguished the other five roles as involving more physical movement. “My role is more stationary. It’s been fascinating for me as an actor to be able to watch their physical process,” she said. The cast worked closely with movement coach and puppeteer Brad Cook to discover the physicality of these characters. Discussing the significance each character has to the importance of the overall story, Zadorsky shared, “You can feel this sense of it really being an ensemble — we are all connected.” 

Zadorsky also described the story’s driving villainous force, Th’owxiya, as “over the top and lovely. She’s [got a] very one-track mind — she is driven by hunger and she is going to do whatever it takes to get what she wants.” However, she added that as an actress, a mind limited to one thought or action is difficult to play: “I don’t want it to come off as one note, so finding the nuances of her initially was challenging. But once I found the joyful sides of her it was easier to balance out the anger. I think we all have bits of light and dark within us. It has been lovely to have a role where I can tap into my darkness and transform it through her.” 

For those who attended, this production was anything but one note. With various interactive elements, the audience was encouraged to participate in the experience of bringing the story to life. One such opportunity includes performing the feast song which can be found here. 

The cast was taught this song by the playwright himself, Joseph A. Dandurand, when he attended a full week of rehearsals. In regard to UW’s interpretation of the story, Zadorsky said, “It helped to have [Dandurand’s] blessing. He was very open about doing what we wanted with this story he shared with us.” She described a shared fear of “doing the story justice as settlers” as something that was a hurdle. “But the reason the playwright gave us permission to do the show is because we are not trying to represent Indigenous people, we are telling their story but we are not trying to be them… A lot of us had to do a big deep dive into what the material was [and] got really excited about wanting to share that story.”

This will be the first time that UW has put on an Indigenous play. Considering this, Zadorsky hopes that “this is starting a new tradition and this becomes part of the norm now for [the arts] faculty.” She believes that this story is particularly powerful for its representation of the Kwantlen First Nation as a joyful and culturally rich community: “A lot of Indigenous education that we are given is about the pain, the suffering, the trauma which of course is important to learn, but what I love about this production is [that] we’re getting the flipside. It is so nice to tell a joyful Indigenous story.”

Zadorsky described the play as “a story that I think we all need to hear in this current time and climate. It holds the mirror up to over-consumerism and asks, ‘How do we have a healthier relationship with the world?’”

Th’owxiya: The Hungry Feast Dish was performed Nov. 19-23, with a running time of 58 minutes. Non-perishable food donations were accepted upon entry to support the local Waterloo Region food bank.