RED LAKE — Last week the Red Lake Wilderness Entertainment Series hosted Assassinating Thomson at the Red Lake District High School, with about 85 people attending the show.
“I loved it, I really did,” entertainment series board chair Angela Bishop said.
“I wasn’t sure what to expect, you can really view the world through someone else’s lens.”
The entertainment series has been in operation in the Red Lake community since 2012. The group brings in a wide variety of shows to appeal to a wide audience. The shows usually take a lot of work to set up, and for this show the Red Lake District High School Hockey team along with several other volunteers set up for the show.
Assassinating Thomson is a one-man story telling about the unsolved death of Canadian painter Tom Thomson in 1917 as told by Bruce Horak. Put on by The Royal Manitoba Theatre Centre and playnow.com, Horak and the crew have 24 performances in communities all over Manitoba and Ontario.
“Manitoba Theatre has always been very good about supporting small communities and bringing the arts to them,” Bishop said.
Horak is a Canadian performer living with only 9 per cent of his vision after childhood ocular cancer took most of his vision. Horak tells the story of Thomson while weaving in his own life experiences.
The parallels between Horak and Thomson make for a riveting tale. As Horak tells the story, he paints a unique portrait of the audience at each show. The paintings give a visual representation of how Horak sees the world, which is only revealed to the audience at the end of the show, where they are then auctioned off and the money is donated to Guide Dogs Canada.
The painting from the Red Lake show raised a record breaking $800.
“A lot of people were really moved by it, and made donations to the dog guides program on their way out,” Bishop said.
The next show for the entertainment series is Juno-winning musical duo called Crown Lands on March 19. Tickets are available at The Water Buffalo and on the Red Lake Wilderness Entertainment Series website.
“We’re just so happy people keep coming out,” Bishop said. ”That’s why we do what we do.”
