Reneltta Arluk stars in Montreal play Pig Girl, inspired by Pickton murders

An actress from Fort Smith, N.W.T., is starring in a new production in Montreal that draws attention to violence against aboriginal women in Canada.

Reneltta Arluk is taken prisoner in the play Pig Girl, which was inspired by the Robert Pickton murders in B.C. The pig farmer was convicted in 2007 of second-degree murder in the deaths of six women.

Arluk plays the role of Dying Woman in the four-character play. She spoke with Trail's End host Lawrence Nayally about the production and the grisly subject matter.

This interview has been edited and condensed.

What is this play about?

It's written by Colleen Murphy and it is inspired by the Pickton murders, but what inspired her to write it is really a call to action against violence against women in this country. What he did is the extreme violence against women and then she made it broader by having the women originally be indigenous to bring a greater awareness to the murdered and missing indigenous women in this country.

Tell us about the character you play — who is she?

[My] character's name is Dying Woman. So there's Police Officer, Killer, Sister and Dying Woman — they're kind of archetypical names. Basically I go on stage and I fight to live. And I do it in the best way that I can, which is with my smarts, with my street smarts, with my intelligence, with my call out to my sister. I use my imagination to escape the situation and I create these worlds in my head.

Often times when you see a woman who is victimized you remember her as a victim and what this play does is it brings the woman's life to life so you don't see her as that.

What's it like for you to play Dying Woman?

It's difficult. I'm not going to say it's easy. When I got offered the role and when I read the script I knew it was going to be difficult but it's important. Art is a call to action. Art is a way to provoke and inspire dialogue and change and so I knew that by taking on the role that it would help create that dialogue.

There is violence in the play. It's not gratuitous, although it may seem like it is because it's so violent, the stage directions. But the killer isn't physically creating violence on me. I still enact what's happening but he doesn't actually touch me to do it, so that you're not watching male on female violence on stage.

This production comes as the federal government prepares for an inquiry into missing and murdered indigenous women. Does that give the play added significance to you?

Absolutely. I chose the play, to be a part of it, because of that and now that there's an inquiry that's happening across Canada, it's so absolutely timely. And what's wonderful is that we're having these talkbacks after each show with people within the community who are around that action. So we had the co-ordinator of the women's homeless friendship centre come and speak, to talk about that element of the community. So when an audience comes that may not be associated with these organizations, they're learning about them, so that when they leave they can have a choice to become involved.

What do you hope the audience takes from this play?

When you read about our missing women, you often can read "sex worker," "addict," "homeless," absolutely marginalized and a vulnerable population in this country, so when you come see the play you get to see who this person is and that she wants to live and that she loves her life and that her life is her own and that she's more than just those four words.

Will the play be shown in other cities?

Well there is an interest now, because it's created so much dialogue and the impact that it's having has been so wonderfully great. The dream is that this play gets seen in as many communities as possible because the dialogue has just been so wonderful. So we'll see! I'll keep you posted.

Imago Theatre, a company that specializes in telling women's stories, is running the production of Pig Girl until Feb. 6 at the Centaur Theatre in Montreal.