O.G.I. (The Only Good Indian)
SEPTEMBER 18-28, 2025 – The Colin Jackson Studio Theatre
Project Design by Jivesh Parasram & Tom Arthur Davis
Written and Performed by Debbie Patterson, Hazel Venzon, Eric Plamondon, Jivesh Parasram & Tom Arthur Davis
The Only Good Indian is part lecture, part meditation, and part threat. Or maybe a sacrifice.
Each incarnation of The Only Good Indian recruits a new artist to step into the radical headspace of a suicide bomber. In turn, each performer straps themselves into a suicide vest — and struggles to rationalize to the audience such an “irrational” decision.
It dissects where our similarities begin and where they end, forcing both the performer and the audience to ask themselves: What would I die for?
TICKETS ON SALE HERE!
ASL INTERPRETED PERFORMANCE: September 20th @ 2pm
AUDIO DESCRIBED PERFORMANCE: September 27th @ 2pm
MEET THE PLAYWRIGHTS
Debbie Patterson – Playwright/Actor
Debbie Patterson is a Winnipeg playwright, director and actor. Trained at the National Theatre School of Canada, she is a founding member of Shakespeare in the Ruins, served as Artistic Associate at Prairie Theatre Exchange and was a member of the PTE Playwrights Unit. She was writer in residence at University of Winnipeg and Theatre Projects Manitoba. She was a member of the Stratford Festival Acting Company 2023. She is a proud advocate for disability justice through her work as founding and current Artistic Director of Sick + Twisted Theatre.
She was honoured with the United Nations Platform for Action Committee’s 2014 Activist Award and the City of Winnipeg’s Winnipeg Making a Mark Award in 2017. She was twice shortlisted for the Gina Wilkinson Prize. She is a recipient of the King Charles III’s Coronation Medal. She is the matriarch of a family of artists.
She lives a wheelchair-enabled life in Winnipeg (Treaty 1) and in a cabin on the shore of Lake Winnipeg (Treaty 2) with her partner, Arne MacPherson.
Hazel Venzon – Playwright/Actor
Hazel Venzon is a seasoned actress, director, multidisciplinary artist and producer known for transforming communities through her visionary approach to art-making. Her practice is deeply rooted in creating performances, events, and social engagements that explore themes of migration, cultural integration, and the human cost of globalism.
Trained in sculpture at the University of Manitoba’s School of Fine Arts and an alumna of both The Black Hole Theatre and Studio 58 (Vancouver), Hazel has built a career in the rich space between conventional art forms—mirroring the way she navigates the world. Influenced by relational aesthetics and a community-engaged practice, she creates immersive, intercultural experiences that blur the boundaries of performance while remaining grounded in entertainment and play.
A finalist for the Making a Mark Award and the Gina Wilkinson Prize, Hazel has also served as a casual instructor at the University of Winnipeg. In the latter half of her career, she worked as artistic associates to artistic directors at the Yukon Arts Centre and Prairie Theatre Exchange. She is now the co-founder, executive director and artistic producer of U N I Together (you and i) Productions, a company dedicated to supporting Filipino storytellers and illuminating stories from the Filipino diaspora.
Hazel (she/her) was born on Treaty 1 Territory and makes art that reflects the complexities of her position as a marginalized settler-colonizer.
Eric Plamondon – Playwright/Actor
Multidisciplinary and self-taught artist Eric Plamondon has been cultivating art on the land of Muddy Waters for the last two decades. Never afraid of bold projects that have something to say, Eric has directed and adapted into French the play Jerker by Robert Chesley, presented at the Théâtre Cercle Molière in 2023. During the winter of 2024, Eric temporarily took over a cenotaph dedicated to a militia volunteering to stamp our ‘the métis rebellion’’ with his public art (disruption) piece Redaction. Eric’s poetry has served as narratives for his short film offerings such as Arc-en-noir (2023) and Stained Lips (2018). The last time Eric was on stage was with the Royal Winnipeg Ballet as a guest artist for the production of Jekyll & Hyde (2024).
This is Eric’s first collaboration with Theatre Projects Manitoba and Pandemic Theatre. Gratitude to both, for the invitation, permission, the ally ship and the structure to present something that feels réelle, that feels relevant, that feels theatrical.
Jivesh Parasram – Playwright/Actor
Jivesh Parasram is a Canadian born multidisciplinary artist of Indo-Caribbean decent (Trinidad & Tobago / Kairi). Jiv grew up in Mi’kma’ki around Kijpuktuk (Halifax, NS), and spent over a decade in T’karonto (Toronto, ON) working throughout the Independent theatre sector in various capacities including as the Associate Artistic Producer for Theatre Passe Muraille – also known as ‘the other TPM.’
Jiv is a founding member of the acclaimed socio-political theatre collective “Pandemic Theatre” – where he has developed and produced much of his creative work, usually in collaboration with co-founder Tom Arthur Davis. With Pandemic, he has accrued many honours including several Dora Mavor More nominations and wins, and a Herald Angel from the Edinburgh Fringe Festival.
In 2018, after many visits, Jiv relocated to East Vancouver on the unceded territories of the xʷməθkwəy̓əm (Musqueam), Skwxwú7mesh (Squamish), and Səl̓ílwətaɬ (Tsleil-Waututh) nations to take on the position of Artistic Director for Rumble Theatre.
Recent Credits include: TREMORS 2025 (Rumble) Sound of the Beast (New Harlem/Rumble), Cambodian Rock Band (Arts Club), SWIM (Pandemic + Theatre Conspiracy), East Van Panto: Robin Hood (Theatre/Replacement + Cultch), Fat Joke (Neworld).
Upcoming: The Effect (Rumble + ITSAZOO)
Tom Arthur Davis – Playwright/Actor