Beautiful Scars hits the stage in Ottawa
The musical based on Tom Wilson’s memoir is being produced by Theatre Aquarius at the National Arts Centre Indigenous Theatre.
Two-and-a-half years after its premiere in Hamilton, Tom Wilson’s Beautiful Scars is being performed in Ottawa.
The musical, inspired by the Hamilton musician and artist’s memoir Beautiful Scars: Steeltown Secrets, Mohawk Skywalkers and the Road Home, is being presented by NAC Indigenous Theatre. It will run for two weeks at the Babs Asper Theatre.
Co-written by Wilson and playwright Shaun Smyth and produced by Theatre Aquarius, the rock musical premiered in Hamilton in spring 2024. Theatre Aquarius, which is home of the National Centre for New Musicals, is producing the Ottawa staging.
Rehearsals for the musical’s second run, which reunites most of the cast and creative team, took place in Hamilton.
“Bringing Beautiful Scars to the National Arts Centre Indigenous Theatre is an incredibly proud moment for Theatre Aquarius,” said Mary Francis Moore, the musical’s original director and dramaturge, who is directing the NAC production.
READ OUR REVIEW OF BEAUTIFUL SCARS HERE!
“This is a homegrown Indigenous story, deeply rooted in Hamilton and in Tom Wilson’s extraordinary journey, and to now share it on the national stage feels both powerful and deeply meaningful. It’s an important moment for this story, for Hamilton, and for everyone who has helped bring Beautiful Scars to life.”
In both his memoir and the musical, Wilson shares the story of his upbringing on the Hamilton Mountain as the only child of Bunny and George Wilson. Bunny was a French Canadian homemaker who told her son more than once that she would take secrets about him to her grave. George was Irish Canadian and was blinded in the war.
Wilson was 53 when he learned from a stranger that he was adopted. From here, he pieced his story together: Bunny and George were his great-aunt and great-uncle, and the woman he had loved as his cousin, Janie Lazare, was his mother. Janie was Kanien'kehá:ka, from Kahnawake.
A three-time JUNO Award winner, Order of Canada recipient, and visual artist, Wilson quotes his mother directly in the program notes: “They said my silence was the sound a broken heart makes.”
Lazare, who was living in Dundas, was diagnosed with lung cancer the night before Beautiful Scars closed in Hamilton and she died six months later.
“We have another opportunity here at the National Arts Centre Indigenous theatre to be able to tell this story, one person’s story, one Indigenous story, and that story is about identity and about the truth and that’s two things that have been ripped from the Indigenous world for hundreds of years,” Wilson told Indigenous news network APTN.
Moore wrote in her director’s notes for the NAC production that it took several years to bring the story to the stage.
“Throughout that journey, Tom's remarkable story has brought together a community of collaborators united by a shared commitment to telling it with honesty, humour, compassion, and respect.
“Over time, this creative team and cast have become more than colleagues – they have become family. Through difficult conversations, countless moments of joy, and an unwavering dedication to the work, we have discovered the power of Tom's story not only to illuminate one man's journey, but to connect us to one another.
Métis actor Shelton Elter of Edmonton is reprising his role as Tom in the NAC production. He told APTN that the heart of Beautiful Scars comes in the on-stage talks between Wilson and his mother.
“Sometimes I think the realism of those conversations really have an intense impact. You can tell that they’re real and those are the ones that hit me the hardest.”
Thompson Wilson, Tom Wilson’s son, also reprises his role as a younger Tom in Beautiful Scars, along with fellow actors Kristi Hansen, Brandon McGibbon, and Jeremy Proulx.
