Review: Kiinalik: These Sharp Tools
iPhoto caption: Evalyn Parry and Laakkuluk Williamson Bathory. Photo by Jeremy Mimnagh
Kiinalik: These Sharp Tools
Buddies in Bad Times/Theatre Passe Muraille
Written and performed by Evalyn Parry and Laakkuluk Williamson Bathory. Directed by Erin Brubacher. Runs until November 5.
Evalyn Parry and Laakkuluk Williamson Bathory couldn’t be more different. Parry is queer, from “the south” of Canada, and makes her art as a writer, director, actor, and artistic director of Buddies in Bad Times Theatre in Toronto. Williamson Bathory is from “the north.” She is an Inuit artist, storyteller, throat singer, and Greenlandic mask dancer, born in Greenland and living in Iqaluit.
But even coming from different cultures, it’s their similarities that are their strength. That’s what made them join forces to create Kiinalik: These Sharp Tools, a bracing, beautiful, thought-provoking, unsettling, challenging show. Parry and Williamson Bathory both come from feisty, confident parents who have passed on their teachings; they both have a strong moral compass that loathes prejudice and injustice and desecration of the land; and they both embrace storytelling to communicate their thoughts and ideas. Parry is the more playful of the two, Williamson Bathory the more quietly thoughtful.
They met on a ship on an Arctic expedition from Iqaluit to Greenland. Throughout the show, the women tell their own stories of the trip, along with observations of the world around them—Parry through music, her own songs and those of others, and Williamson Bathory through the traditional mythologies of her Inuit culture and Greenlandic heritage. I sense that it is Parry who has benefited more from the meeting, as her perceptions of Inuit culture, traditions, and history were expanded. Parry confides that she did not know of the Canadian government’s inhumane treatment of Inuit communities when they were moved several thousand miles away from their natural hunting grounds to remote communities so they could be “controlled” and “managed.” As she tells of this hideous point in our history, Parry’s voice quivers with emotion. That’s not history, she says. It’s living memory.
The show’s writing is dense, full of history, facts, mythology, dates. One can be overwhelmed. Don’t be. Listen. Hear. Consider this vital culture, different than many of our own. The way the stories are told illuminates the strength of the show. Director Erin Brubacher has sensitively woven the dialogue with performances, video panoramas, and music from the wondrous cellist Cris Derksen. It’s almost as if the cello itself is a mournful, expressive character.
One of the performances is a Greenlandic mask dance done by Williamson Bathory. She smears black makeup on her whole face, streaking lines through the black and adding slashes of red on the side of the nose. She puts two small balls in her mouth so her cheeks puff out. She then does something that introduces danger and a sense of unease to the evening: she enters into what should be the audience’s safe place. She approaches a man here, a woman there, her tongue flicking, her pelvis grinding forward. She growls and makes guttural, sexual sounds.
Then she approaches me. I am changed from a committed observer to one who is now engaged in the performance. Williamson Bathory pushes her face so close to mine I think we will touch. She holds her cupped hands in front of my chest as if she will grope me. I look her in the eye. I smile slightly. I don’t move. What if she touches me? What do I do? She moves on to someone else.
Later, as she takes off her makeup sitting on stage, she explains that that character celebrates sexuality, sex, and sensuality. By being so close to the audience, she was attempting to arouse everyone’s sensuality. A difference of cultures: Inuit are comfortable with their sexuality; while those of us from “the south” are not, we’re more uptight.
Good theatre explains our world and the worlds of others and makes us feel uncomfortable—uncomfortable about how we define ourselves, about our perceptions of the world and other cultures, uncomfortable when our comfort zone is invaded. Kiinalik: These Sharp Tools does all of this beautifully.
For tickets or more information, click here.
Lynn Slotkin
Lynn is the former theatre critic for Intermission, and currently writes reviews on her blog The Slotkin Letter. She also does theatre reviews, interviews, and commentary for CIUT Friday Morning (89.5 FM). She was a theatre reviewer for CBC's Here and Now for ten years. On average, she sees 280 shows a year.
LEARN MORE
iPhoto caption: Photo by Ian Jackson
REVIEW: In Ronnie Burkett’s darkly intelligent Wonderful Joe, gentrification hits like a meteor
When Siminovitch-winning puppet virtuoso Ronnie Burkett chose the focus of his latest play, was he thinking of TO Live’s $421-million plan to redevelop its St. Lawrence Centre for the Arts?
iPhoto caption: 13 Plays About ADHD All At The Same Time graphic courtesy of Circlesnake Productions.
REVIEW: 13 Plays About ADHD All At The Same Time is true to its title
While the play’s structure may occasionally leave you feeling as scattered as its protagonists, its heart, humour, and raw honesty will keep your thoughts churning well into the night.
iPhoto caption: Goblin:Macbeth production still by Jae Yang.
REVIEW: Goblin:Macbeth might just leave you gobsmacked
While most of the entertainment comes from the goblins’ antics whenever the Shakespearean text is paused or subverted for comic effect, the secret sauce to this whole endeavour is that it really is an honest-to-goodness staging of that text, designed to showcase the performers’ near-virtuosic mastery of the material.
iPhoto caption: Photo by Dahlia Katz.
REVIEW: The Thanksgiving Play wriggles in performative wokeness
In 2024, is there a way to produce an engaging, culturally sensitive play about the first American Thanksgiving for elementary schoolers? The Thanksgiving Play, penned by Native American playwright Larissa FastHorse and now playing at Mirvish’s CAA Theatre, poses that question in its first five minutes, then throws the query out with the cranberry sauce in its madcap exploration of a devised theatre piece at an unnamed primary school.
iPhoto caption: The Anger in Ernest and Ernestine production still by Curtis Perry.
REVIEW: The Anger in Ernest and Ernestine simmers just below the surface
While the show certainly induces laughter, some of its strong design elements paint the actors into a corner, at times making the comedy feel a touch manufactured.
iPhoto caption: Samca production still by Barry McCluskey.
REVIEW: Samca is a disturbing, unique production that explores folklore and womanhood
The feminist folklore play, written by and starring Natalia Bushnik and Kathleen Welch, is an engrossing and sometimes frightening experience, perfect to kick off the scary season.
iPhoto caption: Marcel Stewart, Dan Mousseau, Christef Desir, Alex Bulmer, Shakura Dickson in The Story. Photo by Neil Silcox
It was frigid the night I saw the production, and when you are freezing and can’t feel your fingers or toes, time-wasting shenanigans wear thin.
iPhoto caption: Lena Maripuu, Graham Conway, and Peter Pan ensemble. Photo by Nicholas Porteous
Joy to the world—the most inventive, lively, whimsical production of Peter Pan has arrived for the holidays!
iPhoto caption: Robyn Stevan in The Mess. Photo by Dahlia Katz
Co-creators Mikaela Davies and Polly Phokeev have devised a short, complex, layered story of how the mess a person creates can affect those around them.
iPhoto caption: Company in the Grand Theatre's production of A Christmas Carol. Photo by Claus Andersen
Reviews: A Christmas Carol (x2)
Reviews of two productions of A Christmas Carol—Ross Petty Productions and the Grand Theatre, in London, Ont.—that couldn’t be more different.
iPhoto caption: David Schurmann and Carly Street in Heisenberg. Photo by Cylla von Tiedemann
Of the three productions I’ve seen of Heisenberg—on Broadway in New York, the West End in London, and here in Toronto—this one is the best.
Comments