Advertisement

Culture Theatre

Night

NIGHT written and directed by Christopher Morris (Human Cargo/Factory, 125 Bathurst). Runs to April 24, Tuesday-Saturday 8 pm, matinee Sunday 2 pm. $30-$35. 416-504-9971. See listing. Rating: NNNN

Doing the right thing isn’t easy, especially when cultural clashes give a moral ambiguity to the action. In writer/director Christopher Morris’s emotionally charged Night, western and aboriginal values are often at odds.

Daniella (Linnea Swan), a Toronto anthropologist, arrives in Pond Inlet, Nunavut, to return the bones of Lamech, an Inuk man who has literally been shelved for years in an Ontario museum he’s been reduced to a catalogue number. Lamech’s teenaged granddaughter, Piuyuq (Tiffany Ayalik), and his son, Jako (Jonathan Fisher), view Daniella’s “charitable” act from different viewpoints.

Morris’s production grows in weight and seriousness as it progresses. The comic tone of the early scenes, in which the dealings of Daniella and a white teacher with the Inuit characters turn the southerners into figures of satire, turns to something more tragic with the revelations concerning Piuyuq’s friend, Gloria (Reneltta Arluk), a figure who can’t find a safe place either in her own culture or the Western world that encroaches on it.

Performed in both English and Inuktitut (with surtitle translations), the show switches smoothly from one location to another in a filmic, jump-cut style. One of its strongest themes is the solidity of the Pond Inlet community, a group of people linked by radio broadcasts. It’s through the radio that they learn about birthdays, dangerous polar bears and everyday troubles like the loss of a pair of dentures.

The performances are first-rate, with Ayalik’s Piuyuq shifting from a glowing optimist to a fearful teen whose nightmares encroach on her waking life. Arluk’s shy, haunted Gloria, whose sad, ravaged life we can read in her expression, is equally strong. As Jako – angry with himself and the white people who have changed his world – and several other figures, Fisher gives one of his best performances.

Swan’s physical work sometimes defines Daniella more strongly than her words do, from the moment she arrives on designer Gillian Gallow’s evocative mound of snow, carrying the box of bones. Intentional elegant movement sets her apart from those around her she only realizes late in the play the paternalistic nature of her efforts to help Piuyuq’s family.

Gallow’s set and costumes, Michelle Ramsay’s lighting and Lyon Smith’s sound turn the northern Canadian landscape into another character, alternately savage and nurturing, one whose power must be treated with respect.

Advertisement

Exclusive content and events straight to your inbox

Subscribe to our Newsletter

This field is for validation purposes and should be left unchanged.

By signing up, I agree to receive emails from Now Toronto and to the Privacy Policy and Terms & Conditions.

Recently Posted