Askîwan invokes the
Sacred Circle of Life
A multidisciplinary performance by Cree artist Ryson Houseman
By Sophie Jama
November 29, 2025
Imagine walking into Théâtre La Chapelle in Montréal on November 25, 2025. The stage looks like the workshop of a mad magician: a tripod stands guard, a large metal bucket gleaming like a treasure, a water carafe next to a round glass bowl, humming computers, a silver emergency blanket, and all sorts of curious objects scattered everywhere. Nearby, three musicians set up with mics, mixers, a guitar, and a viola da gamba. You can already feel that something magical is about to happen.
Live projections, real-time video, objects handled inside miniature sets that become vast landscapes on screen: everything unfolds before your eyes.
At the centre is Tyson Houseman, a Plains Cree artist – a nêhiyaw from Paul First Nation and Ermineskin – kneeling like a shaman about to call up the mountains. He is the creator and director of askîwan ᐊᐢᑮᐊᐧᐣ, a multimedia lyric performance. With him are Devon Bate on guitar and electroacoustic sound, Cree-Métis baritone Jonathon Adams singing in nehiyawewin, and Leah Weitzner on viola da gamba, the 15th‑century ancestor of the cello.
In Cree, askîwan means “it is a year, it is summer; it is the earth, it is the ground” – a perfect title for this humble journey into the infinite. With formative experiences at Bread & Puppet, Tyson is a master of the ephemeral. Presented at La Chapelle from November 25 to 28, after OFFTA and before PuSh 2026, this work is a true Montréal gem.
The show begins in a low, vibrating hush—distant winds, faint animal sounds. Cameras zoom in on objects on the floor and turn them into giants on the screen: water flowing without end, earth rising into mountains, foothills becoming the Rockies, wind howling, fire crackling. A few tiny humans slip through, lost in the vastness. Tyson shapes these dreamscapes out of everyday items: a carafe becomes an ocean, a blanket, a snowstorm. And somehow, it feels like pure magic.
Themes and nêhiyaw ecology
Askîwan is a dream‑tinged nod to a planet in distress. These projected mountains, so beautiful and fragile, are a warning: the climate crisis is here. Drawing on millennia of Indigenous knowledge, the piece weaves together close observation of the natural world and spirituality. There are no dull lectures, just an invitation to imagine a way of living in balance, as the Cree do with their ancestral lands. A sly joke runs through it all: if we listened more closely to these cycles, we wouldn’t need Netflix to escape.
For the Nêhiyaw, time is not some boring straight line, but a great circle where everything reconnects: past, present, future, and above all the land, askîw. Tyson draws on teachings from Elders about this cosmology—the idea that we are part of nature, neither above nor below it. Water, earth, wind, and fire move in repeating cycles, like a gentle reminder: “Hey, human, you’re just one grain of sand on the mountain.”
‘This is opera with not a single wasted word—a Cree performance that enchants through music and atmosphere kept deliberately simple. ‘
The music is perfect for the journey: electronic sounds pulsing like the heartbeat of a planet, gentle, resonant songs in nehiyawewin, Tyson Houseman as a teller of ancient stories, and Leah Weitzner on viola da gamba. There is no unnecessary text. You look wide, you listen closely, you dream big. The room stays as quiet as a church, yet it feels happy and full of wonder. Everyone is riveted, like kids around a campfire.
Askîwan is more than a show; it is an act of cosmic love. Tiny objects become giants, voices speak of ancestors, sounds seem to wake the Earth itself. You leave feeling lighter, dreamy, and more aware of the sacred circle of life.
Askîwan ᐊᐢᑮᐊᐧᐣ
Director and performer: Tyson Houseman
Composer/Sound design: Devon Bate
Baritone vocalist: Jonathon Adams
Viola da gamba: Leah Weitzner
Presented November 25–28, 2025 at Théâtre La Chapelle Scènes Contemporaines, Montréal.
Featured image: Josepf O’Malley
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