Crystle Lightning and MC RedCloud, affectionately known as “Cloud” — the creative minds behind Bear Grease — share their inspirations, success, and the importance of Indigenous representation.
What was the initial interest that sparked the development of Bear Grease?
Crystle: Cloud and I were watching Grease on TV. As teenagers and young adults, we loved it—Cloud was even in Grease in high school! As adults, we noticed how VERY WHITE the film was. You had to squint to see anyone of colour. That led us to the idea of imagining a Native Grease.
“LOL, can you imagine a Native Grease?!” and Cloud IMMEDIATELY began singing “Summer Snaggin’, had me a blaaaast!” and we laughed so hard. Once the pandemic hit, we hunkered down and wrote a full 40-minute show, and it made its debut at the 2021 Edmonton Fringe Festival.
How have Indigenous and non-Indigenous audiences responded to the Indigenous humour in the show?
Cloud: Our very first show sold out in under 15 minutes. Bear Grease was the fastest-selling show for the 2021 Edmonton Fringe Festival. The REASON it sold out so quickly is that before it went fully public, Fringe sent out an email blast to its theatre patrons, who happened to be almost fully white. None of our friends or family members could even get in.
We were a bit worried that they wouldn’t get our humour, but they rolled on the floor laughing and the response was phenomenal. So, we knew that with an Indigenous crowd, they would rip the roof off.
Crystle: We like to change the show a bit for different performances. For instance, if we’re in Treaty 6 territory, in Cree territory, we’ll infuse some Cree words to make it more meaningful for the audience.
Why do you think it is significant to have an all-Indigenous cast to tell this story?
Crystle: Although we live in a time where we can name four or five Indigenous shows on TV, we still make up less than 1% of the content out there. We believe representation is important, and Bear Grease takes pride in being an all-Indigenous cast. For far too long, we have been depicted only in period pieces — on horseback and in buckskin — and very rarely in a contemporary setting, almost insinuating that we were ‘once upon a time’.
