Shield Maiden is taking the summer off to enjoy time with family and friends. Stay tuned for exciting developments coming for the 24/25 theatre season!
Shield Maiden is a feminist solo show using a character from the past to encourage equality.
Funny, sexy, fierce and unapologetic! Imagine a 10th century Viking TED Talk (RED Talk = redheads, Erik the Red, Vikings) on what it means to be a warrior woman.
Shield Maiden was written by Melanie Teichroeb who was inspired by the #MeToo Movement. Her live performance reflects the rage, humour, resiliency of women. The redheaded Viking addresses sexism, gender bias, sexual freedom, and trauma. Teichroeb draws on her own inner warrior to play this character.
As Viking Garrison Commander Ingrid Larsdottir comedically endeavours to engage new recruits, she inadvertently reveals her own tragic and violent personal history. Watching this warrior struggle with her trauma is unsettling. Witnessing her tap into her inner strength is inspiring. Ingrid’s clarion call for equality and new recruits wins! She empowers women to reclaim the warrior archetype in a substantive way.
The reality is that not enough has changed in the treatment of women since the time of Vikings…one thousand years ago. This show challenges historical biases and gendered expectations about women and is based on a real historical character who
history gaslit the hell out of.
“More than a millennium ago in what’s now southeastern Sweden, a wealthy Viking warrior was laid to rest, in a resplendent grave filled with swords, arrowheads, and two sacrificed horses. The site reflected the ideal of Viking male warrior life, or so many archaeologists had thought. New DNA analyses of the bones, however, confirm a revelatory find: the grave belonged to a woman.” National Geographic
WHAT THEY SAY
“Shield Maiden Play gave me permission to find and then try out becoming my most powerful self. It awakened the badass woman warrior inside me who had been trapped for the past 20 years of my life. And let me tell you, this warrior is fierce, she is brilliant, she is powerful. And I like her. Thank you, Ingrid. Thank you Melanie Teichroeb. Watch out world, here I come.”
– Chloë Straw, Managing Director, Wave Consulting Ltd.