Crow’s ‘Hucksterland’ explores universal experience of bad landlords

Have you ever had a nightmare of a landlord? That nightmare is the inspiration for Hucksterland, another Canadian Premiere production opening at the High Performance Rodeo this week.

Playwright Caleigh Crow says she didn’t have to look far for material.

“It’s based on one million true stories. I mean, I feel like every time I tell someone I’m writing a musical about a landlord, they always have a story for me about a bad experience or like, just like a case of discrimination or like roaches or whatever,” she said.

Hucksterland is billed as a punk rock satire from Chromatic Theatre and Thumbs Up Good Work theatre, premiering at the 40th Annual High Performance Rodeo for four shows only.

Crow is a Métis playwright and actress from Calgary, recently her show There Is Violence and There Is Righteous Violence and There Is Death, or the Born-Again Crow, won the Governor General’s Award for English-language drama in 2024.

She says work began in 2019 for Hucksterland when she joined Chromatic Theatre’s first-ever playwrights unit. Since then, she’s rebuilt it, rewritten it, thrown out songs, and reshaped the story again and again.

“It’s gone through multiple iterations,” Crow says. “But I feel like it’s finally ready.”

Here’s the plot primer:  Jordan Jameson is a swaggering corporate landlord with an empire of rentals, and side businesses, working with a mayor who conveniently looks the other way.

Crow says Jameson represents every big, unreachable landlord who never picks up the phone.

“The way that my landlords have made me feel, this is how they talk about their tenants, that landlord is who we’re putting a big target on in this show,” she explained.

The musical leans into punk energy and a bit of noir, as a prosecutor chases down the corrupt duo. It’s satire, but Crow says the line between fiction and reality might be thinner than people expect.

“I don’t even think it’s that far from the truth.” 

And she hopes now is a good time for the creation to find it’s feet with the housing crisis in public focus.

Hucksterland runs Jan. 28-31 at the Alexandra Centre Concert Hall in Inglewood.

Tickets can be found here.