Baba Yaga play highlights women's empowerment

Much like Baba Yaga, Wearne said women are very powerful and what they can do, can often be considered magical. Photo: Lauryn Mackenzie / CHLY 101.7fm

A local theatre group is finding ways to bring new and marginalized voices and stories to the stage.

Through a mandate to showcase stories and voices that don’t always see centre stage, Western Edge Theatre is retelling a story that has historically been told by men.

In Slavic folklore, Baba Yaga is a hideous elderly witch who steals, cooks and eats children. But in a modern-day retelling written by Victoria-based writer Kat Sandler, the perspective is changed: Baba Yaga is now an attractive smart modern woman and anti-hero.

In the supernatural thriller play Yaga, Western Edge shines a light on the strength of women and toxic masculinity. 

Western Edge Artistic Director and actor in Yaga, Jonathan Greenway spoke with CHLY about the play and how it showcases the effects of preconceived ideas around gender.

He said the play follows a detective tasked with finding out what happened to a missing university student from the small town of Whittock. This play highlights the vilification of women and the power dynamics of masculine roles within communities.

“Baba Yaga is known to be a witch, but it's a different perspective than we're told from the classic Grimms’ Fairy Tales or the fairy tales of the lore of Baba Yaga,” Greenway said. “It's a modern telling for 2025, it was written in 2019, but there's definitely a 21st-century supernatural thriller from the perspective of Baba Yaga.”

Greenway said the play's story fits perfectly with the themes of the three plays they are performing this season.

He said he wants to offer opportunities to those not typically featured in traditional theatre.

“[Cis-gender], white males, voices and stories are presented on our stages,” Greenway said. “Often in Canada, we get a lot of that very white heteronormative stories and I wanted this season to really exemplify alternative voices from the cis white males.”

Unboxing Bravery, the first show of their season featured a story by local drag performer Lauren Semple who shared their journey of gender exploration and transgender allyship through the art form of drag.

Greenway said Yaga showcases the power women can have, alongside the supernatural feminine power that can destroy toxic masculinity.

He said being able to share a story of feminine empowerment through an intense psychological thriller is not something that is often offered in Nanaimo. He wants to be the alternative to “Theatre with a capital T”

He explains “Theatre with a capital T” as the traditional “kitchen dramas and living room farces”, plays that often have similar themes to the other seven shows people have seen in the last two years.

He said with Western Edge they try to get out of “Theatre with a capital T”, to bring something new for Nanaimo that is edgy and challenges conventions and perceptions around what theatre could do.

Wendy Wearne, who is playing Baba Yaga, said that while researching the stories of Baba Yaga, she was able to discover parts of the character in herself.

“Throughout history and time, women who are intelligent, gifted, loud, spoken, and powerful are often blamed for things. I think that's how the witch trials in Salem happened,” Wearne said. “I think today, still, even in our decade, women are not treated as having good attributes that when they're seen in perhaps a male counterpart would be seen as positive attributes.”

Much like Baba Yaga, Wearne said women are very powerful and what they can do, can often be considered magical.

“I think women have a natural gift in this world and in this play, and we do certain magical things,” Wearne said. “We attract men or other women, we can give birth if we choose to, we can raise a family, we can work, we can heal, we can do so many things.”

Yaga will be shown at the OV Arts Centre starting February 7 and running until February 16 on select dates.

Funding Note: This story was produced with funding support from the Local Journalism Initiative, administered by the Community Radio Fund of Canada.