The Unnatural and Accidental Women

I See You Sisters Like Yesterday Today: The Unnatural and Accidental Women Sharon Sullivan is an Associate Professor of In “Archimedes and the Paradox of Theater and Chair of Women’s and Gender Feminist Criticism,” Myra Jehlen writes that Studies at Washburn University, Topeka, “feminist thinking is really rethinking, an Kansas. She is particularly interested in the examination of the way certain assumptions intersections between art and activism. Her about women and the female character enter current research interests focus on modern into the fundamental assumptions that or- slavery, domestic violence, and incarcerated ganize all our thinking” (Jehlen 1981, 89). women. Métis playwright Marie Clements examines and challenges assumptions about gender Abstract and indigeneity in her play, The Unnatural This paper argues that Marie Clements’ play, and Accidental Women (UAW). Based on a The Unnatural and Accidental Women, pro- true story of a man who killed at least ten motes a (re)creation of a women’s community indigenous women in Vancouver, British that empowers women and nurtures indi- Columbia (B.C.), by poisoning them with alco- vidual identity. Inspired by the true story of hol, Clements recreates/rethinks the events women murdered by a serial killer in Van- from the victims’ points of view. Ultimately, couver, British Columbia, Clements focuses she reveals not only what has been rendered on the indigenous women victims whose stor- invisible about the women’s lives, but also the ies were not told in the media. possibility of a different cultural reality based on both inclusivity and respect for difference. Résumé Marie Clements has been a perform- Cet article soutient que la pièce de Marie er, playwright, director, and artistic director in Clements, The Unnatural and Accidental theatres across B.C. and parts of the United Women, fait la promotion d’une (ré)création States. As a playwright, Clements’ plays have d’une communauté féminine qui responsabi- been staged nationally and internationally, lise les femmes et encourage l’identité indi- including at Ottawa’s National Arts Centre, viduelle. Inspirée par l’histoire vraie de L.A.’s Mark Taper Forum, Minneapolis’s Play- femmes assassinées par un tueur en série à wright’s Center, the International Festival of Vancouver, en Colombie-Britannique, Clem- Native Playwrights in Illinois and New York, ents porte son attention sur les femmes vic- The Literature Festival in Germany, and the times autochtones, dont les histoires n’ont Women, Text and Technologies Festival in pas été rapportées par les médias. Leeds, England. The Unnatural and Acci- dental Women premiered at the Firehall Arts Centre in November 2000. Clements wrote the screenplay for a film version of the play, which was produced in 2006. As a writer, director, and producer through her company, Working Pajama Lab, Clements is currently developing several film projects. The accounts of serial killer Gilbert Paul Jordan, “a man who has been named in the news media as one of [Canada’s] deadli- est predators,” inspired UAW (Hopkins 2000, 7). The Canadian mainstream media narra- tive told Jordan’s story while the victims re- mained, for the most part, nameless, face- www.msvu.ca/atlantis ■□ 36.1, 2013 65 less, and without history (Rose, Pemberton, Rose and Aunt Shadie are the oldest women and Sarti 1987); they were simply cast as in the play and the first two women murdered victims, alcoholics, and prostitutes. Clements’ (in 1965 and 1978 respectively). The final two play refocuses this story onto the women. By characters are white men: Jordan, the Bar- naming these women (although not using Jor- ber, in his 30s and 60s, “short, balding, nice dan’s victims’ real names), Clements honours and creepy” and a man who abuses and them as individuals with aspirations, histories, murders women; and Ron, a handsome cop and families—something denied to them in “with a nice body and a good sense of the news and coroners’ reports. humour” who becomes Rebecca’s lover (Clements 2005, 6). The actor playing Jordan Plot and Structure also “transforms” into The Man, The Roman- Clements intertwines three separate tic Partner, The Pillow, The Dresser, The storylines in the play: the stories of the mur- Man’s Shadow, The Airline Steward, and 2nd der victims; interactions between indigenous Fatherly Male Voice (Clements 2005, 6). Ron and white women, represented by encounters is the logger and is referred to as “It” until he through an old-fashioned hotel switchboard; is named Ron (Clements 2005, 6). and the story of the protagonist, Rebecca, UAW uses surrealism and multiple who is looking for her indigenous mother, Rita narrators to normalize events in a way that Louise James (also known as Aunt Shadie), accentuates the horror of the murders. Clem- who she has not seen for twenty years. Ten ents describes the atmosphere of the fictive characters are women murdered by Jordan world in the stage directions: (also known as “the Barber”) during the play. Nine of these women are indigenous women Scenes involving the women should have the feel living on, what Clements terms, “skid row”: of a black and white picture that is animated by the Aunt Shadie, age 52, described as having bleeding-in of colour as the scene and their im- “mother qualities of strength, humour, love, aginations unfold. Colours of personality and spirit, patience”; Mavis, age 42, “a little slow from life and isolation paint their reality and activate the the butt down, but stubborn in life and mem- particular landscape within each woman’s own ory”; The Woman (later named Brenda), age particular hotel room and world. Their deaths are a 27, who “looks and moves like a deer”; drowning-down of hopes, despairs, wishes. The Valerie, age 33, “a big beautiful woman proud killer is a manipulative embodiment of their human of her parts”; Verna, age 38, “sarcastic but need. Levels, rooms, views, perspectives, shadow, searching to do the right thing, the right way”; light, voices, memories, desires. (Clements 2005, Violet, ages 5 and 27, “an old spirit who 7) grows younger to see herself again”; and The Barbershop Women, a “ beautiful, sexy three- The surrealistic setting allows Clem- some that can move and sing,” consisting of ents to portray the isolation of the characters Marilyn, age 25, Penny, age 30, and Patsy, and their desire for human connection and age 40. The tenth woman is a white English affection. The women’s lives are bleak and immigrant, Rose, age 52, a switchboard oper- without colour, but they are unique individuals ator with “a soft heart, but thorny” (Clements yearning to love and be loved. 2005, 5–6). Clements portrays the women as Each scene begins with slides and isolated and alone before the murders. Their sound effects. The slides announce the title, need for comfort and love leaves them vul- date, and location of each scene. They also nerable to the deceptions of the Barber. introduce each woman after her murder Rebecca is the daughter of an indigenous through short newspaper notes describing the woman and a white logger. Her mother, autopsy results: “Marilyn Wiles, 40. Died called Aunt Shadie throughout the play, left December 04, 1984 with a 0.51 blood-alcohol their home because she was afraid her reading. An inquiry at the time concluded daughter would adopt the racist and sexist Wile’s death was ‘unnatural and accidental’” attitudes of Rebecca’s father that rendered (Clements 2005, 58). At first, sound is used to the mother invisible (Clements 2005, 82). metaphorically connect the women with na- 66 www.msvu.ca/atlantis ■□ 36.1, 2013 ture and the destruction of nature. For Act II takes place in the fictive pres- example, Aunt Shadie enters the world of the ent. The other women have been murdered play to the sound effect of “a tree opening up and their spirits hover around Rebecca and to a split. A loud crack—a haunting gasp for Jordan. In the spirit world, the women are not air that is suspended. The sustained sound of alone. They are reunited in a community of suspension as the tree teeters” (Clements women that is strong, spirited, and loving. 2005,9). A logger yells, “Timber.” Aunt Shadie They interact with one another and react to yells for Rebecca. Over the course of Act I, Rebecca’s search for love and her mother the sounds become more complex, combin- and to Jordan’s efforts to seduce vulnerable ing previous effects with new ones: the sound women. While Rebecca and Jordan do not of a chainsaw gradually becomes a harmon- see or consciously acknowledge the spirit ica; the sound of the tide transitions into women until the very end of the play, Clem- whispers. The screen projections function as ents shows the audience that Rebecca and scenery and help establish time as the play Jordan subconsciously hear and respond to moves through both psychic and geographic their words. Despite their invisibility, the spirit space. women are able to affect the physical world; Act I begins with an appalling image they knock off Jordan’s glasses and eventu- of Aunt Shadie—naked, bruised, and dead— ally help Rebecca kill Jordan by gathering getting up and gathering her things. Rebecca around him and slitting his throat when intertwines her story of her search for her Rebecca realizes he is the murderer. mother with the logging history of Vancouver, The play is remarkable, in part, be- and how it created “skid row,” where the log- cause of the balance between surrealism and gers spent their time drinking and nursing realism in depicting the internal and exter- their wounds. Clements describes the de- nal lives of the characters.

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