UNTYING THE SPELL
Tongva and Mescalero Apache actor GiGi Buddie delivers a spellbinding performance in Where We Belong, an autobiographical one-woman show by Madeline Sayet, who weaves a deeply personal narrative about the intersection of her Native identity and her love of Shakespeare.
The Umbrella Stage production, directed by Tara Moses (Seminole Nation of Oklahoma), marks the New England premiere and the first time the play has been performed by anyone other than Sayet herself. Buddie’s performance is terrific, and Sayet’s script is compelling, but the scenic design by Baron E. Pugh—covering the stage in sand with scattered boulders—feels out of place. The story moves between Connecticut and England, neither of which are particularly sandy. Perhaps the design is meant to evoke the island in The Tempest, which plays a significant role in Where We Belong, but that island is described as lush, not barren.
Buddie fully inhabits the character of Achokayis, Sayet’s Mohegan name, as she recounts her experiences in England while pursuing a Ph.D. in Shakespeare and colonialism. Much of her research revolves around Caliban in The Tempest, whom she views as a representation of an Indigenous figure displaced by colonization.
Though a solo piece, Buddie skillfully embodies multiple characters, from British academics to a curator at the British Museum who proudly explains that the museum holds the remains of 12,000 individuals from former colonies—with no intention of repatriating them. She also channels the voice of Achokayis’s mother, a medicine woman who persistently urges her daughter to return home. A particularly poignant moment occurs when Achokayis stumbles upon the London memorial to Mahomet Weyonomon, a Mohegan leader who died of smallpox in 1735 while advocating for his people against British colonization.
Sayet’s script captures the tangled history of Connecticut’s Native people and the lasting impacts of colonization. In a striking conclusion, she notes that Shakespeare’s language—words he invented—has been cherished and preserved, while much of the Mohegan language has been lost.
The story is rich, complex, and deeply personal—perhaps almost too layered to absorb in a single sitting. Yet at its core, Where We Belong is about a young woman who sought refuge in Shakespeare to escape the burden of explaining her culture to a world uninterested in her people. Ironically, that very love for Shakespeare becomes the means through which she reclaims her voice, using his work to illuminate the ongoing struggle of Native communities to assert their place in history and the present.
photos courtesy of Umbrella Stage Company
Where We Belong
The Umbrella Stage Company
Black Box Theater at The Umbrella Arts Center, 40 Stow Street in Concord, MA
Thurs and Fri at 7:30; Sat at 8; Sun at 3
ends on March 23, 2025
for tickets, visit Umbrella Arts Center
for more shows, visit Theatre in Boston
