Arriving at High Performance Rodeo with a landlord worth hating, Hucksterland is a musical worth shouting along to. Written by award-winning Metis playwright Caleigh Crow with music by Gus Rendell and Sacha Crow, the new production frames the housing crisis through satire, spite, and the downfall of a landlord. “I try to always write about the realities of most people. And the reality is, most people work in retail, and most people rent,” Crow said. “The reason for that has to do with power and the accumulation of it in our society.” Hucksterland drags these power imbalances into the light and laughs in their face.
Crow has spent years shaping this production, long enough to watch the housing debate intensify around her. Years of unstable housing and landlord trouble shaped her understanding of the crisis, as she describes her past relationships with landlords as “the most antagonistic relationship and most toxic I’ve had in my whole life. Landownership is inherently wrong.” A particular frustration woven into those memories lingers even after a lease ends. Rather than focusing on the renter’s experience, Crow built the story around a single landlord, Jordan Jameson. Jameson is a person whose ego, entitlement, and puffed-up sense of benevolence offer the perfect playground for satire.
View this post on Instagram
Humour was always part of the plan. Crow felt that satire offered the most straightforward path into conversations about affordability, inequality, and the commodification of housing without sliding into despair. These feelings guided her early drafts, though she is quick to clarify that she never wanted to write a show that lectures renters about the circumstances they already live in. For her, the show is about exposing the ego and entitlement of those who benefit from it. “I knew I wanted Hucksterland to be funny and centred around this villainous landlord rather than the plight of a renter because people who live that life already know that,” said Crow. “I wanted to create a character that we could all get on board with hating. Some landlords take themselves very seriously and have a sense of heroism. What I really wanted to do was make fun of these people and call them horrible.”
What makes the project especially compelling is the musical backbone. Crow explained that she “does not enjoy the traditional repertoire that surrounds musical theatre,” and wanted the musical to have sounds with more bite. “Luckily, I married a musician and songwriter,” Crow said, referencing her partner, Sacha Crow, who also worked on There is Violence and There is Righteous Violence and There is Death, or the Born-Again Crow, which won an award at the 2024 Governor General’s Award. The team expanded further when a Vertigo Theatre residency brought them together with local band Brain Bent. That collaboration introduced musician Gus Rendell into the mix, who also worked with Sacha Crow on a play titled O’KOSI that explored the indigenous history of Treaty 7, and made the final version of Hucksterland possible.
The trio spent five years developing material and refining the show’s tone until everything was fully aligned. A standout moment comes from a character named Aspen, whom Crow rewrote. “I really tried not to give them too much of an arc, but I had to allow one character to redeem themselves,” she said. In a story built around the rot at the core of authority, Aspen offers a sliver of redemption that Crow herself didn’t expect.
When the show debuts at High Performance Rodeo, audiences will take in noisy guitars, a cast of unhinged characters who will surprise you, set pieces that go further than you’d anticipate, and a story that spirals into mayhem. Crow speaks highly of the festival and the way its audiences show up ready to take risks. Hucksterland seems designed for precisely that kind of room.
For now, the only way to experience the musical experience is to be in the theatre. “As things stand right now, you have to come see it in person,” said Crow. “That’s the beauty of it.”
Hucksterland runs from January 29 to February 7 at the Alexandra Centre Concert Hall.
