The Studio
Four Stars
A seismic rumble
permeates the air at the opening of this remarkable fourth world meditation on
the relationship between Canada’s affluent urban south and the country’s
indigenous community in the isolated and often frozen north. At first glance,
the show’s creators appear poles apart. Evalyn Parry is a queer folk singer who
runs the Toronto-based Buddies in Bad Times Theatre company, who are producing
this show as part of Edinburgh International Festival’s You Are Here strand as
well as the cross-festival Indigenous Contemporary Scene season. Laakkuluk
Williamson Bathory is a Kalaalit, or Greenlandic Inuk, story-teller, writer and
performer, who lives in Iqaluit in Nunavut, the newest, largest and least
populated territory in Canada’s far north.
Over almost two hours of
words, music, story-telling and some of the most intense dance moves ever,
Parry and Bathory lay bare the common ground they discovered after they met
during an artists’ residence on a ship. Their parallel lives include both
having English fathers, and both being sung to sleep with the Skye Boat Song.
If these are the icebreakers, where they differ is Parry’s discovery of how
Bathory’s community was colonised by her own.
Accompanied by Cris
Derkson’s live cello playing and Elysha Poirier’s globe spinning live video
feed, Erin Brubacher’s production opts for a low-key formalism that retains a
speak-easy vibe to what is a cross-cultural cabaret of sorts. Electronically
treated instruments conjure up wordless arias, with both performers
criss-crossing personal experiences with elegance and warmth amidst their revelations
of hidden history.
A brief interlude
encourages the audience to chat about their own experience of northern
extremes, after which Williamson launches herself with mercurial fashion into a
display of uaajeerneq, a thrilling mask dance given full vent to its
thrustingly libidinous intent. As Parry and Williams find accord, their
international alliance feels as down-home local as a spoken-word night in an
electrifying reclaiming of cultural roots delivered with power and grace.
The Herald, August 5th 2019
ends
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