THEATRE REVIEW: NIGHT
15 APR/11

JOHN COULBOURN - QMI Agency
Rating: 4 out of 5

That Ken Gass has got some nerve. Here we are, still trying to shake the chill of winter from our bones, and the venerable but vital artistic director of the Factory Theatre expects us to flock to see a show set in the middle of winter in Pond Inlet, Nunavut — the precise place, one suspects, that polite people reference when they tell us to stick something where the sun don’t shine.

But happily, Gass has not only got some nerve, he’s got some show too, and as a result, even the most winter-weary Torontonian is likely to find something to warm the heart and fire the brain in the show that opened on the Factory mainstage Thursday. It’s called NIGHT, and it is, of course, the centrepiece of Factory’s annual Performance Spring Festival, which continues through April 24.

A production of Human Cargo, NIGHT is written and directed by HC’s artistic director Christopher Morris, and, as stated, it is set in Nunavut in the dead of winter — a time so cold that even the sun leaves town.

It’s a world simply but effectively recreated here by designers Gilliam Gallow (sets and costumes) and Michelle Ramsay (lighting) and while it may be darker than Stephen Harper’s vision of a coalition government, young Piuyuq Auqsaq (played by Tiffany Ayalik) isn’t going to let a little thing like endless night destroy the celebration of her Sweet 16 birthday. In fact, she and her closest friend Gloria (played by Reneltta Arluk), have planned a bit of a night on the town that afternoon in honour of the occasion.

And frankly, they could use a celebration to lighten their lives — and not simply because the sun has gone south for the duration. Piuyuq lost her mother just over a year ago in a tragic and pointless accident and is still mourning while she tries to help her father (Jonathan Fisher) cope with his grief and guilt as well.

Gloria, for her part, has some horrific problems on the home front, too, but not so many that she doesn’t worry about the deterioration in the quality of her friend’s family life. It is that concern, in fact, that prompted Gloria to send an e-mail that has brought anthropologist Daniella Swan (Linnea Swan) to Pond Inlet in the hopes of staging a posthumous family reunion that will end a curse that has been plaguing Piuyuq’s family since her paternal grandfather, for whom she was named, was shipped south in a medical evacuation.

Cultural imperialism, racism, alcoholism, sexual abuse, governmental apathy, suicide — NIGHT certainly has a dark side. And while Morris and his team don’t shrink from it, they also leaven the proceedings with a generous measure of that unique and delightfully subversive humour that marks so much First Nations’ theatre. Satellite radio couldn’t go too far wrong, one suspects, by beaming Pond Inlet’s radio station into homes below the treeline.

And under Morris’ direction, this cast has clearly found its comfort zone, despite performing in English and Inuktitut (with English surtitles). In multiple roles, Fisher certainly proves his versatility and Swan is no slouch either. But the real stars of this show are the two young women. Arluk’s tragic Gloria is a haunting heartbreaking presence, while Ayalik’s Piuyuq fairly crackles with youthful energy and brashness throughout, lighting up Night’s final cri de coeur with enough passion, anger and courage that sees a new day dawning.

While clearly intended for a young audience, there’s enough heart and soul here to make this a NIGHT to remember for audiences of any age. That Ken Gass has got some vision.