{"id":6229,"date":"2020-02-17T16:08:31","date_gmt":"2020-02-17T16:08:31","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blog.7doigts.com\/?p=6229"},"modified":"2020-02-17T16:11:00","modified_gmt":"2020-02-17T16:11:00","slug":"a-review-of-unikaaqtuat-by-dr-michelle-la-flamme","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blog.7doigts.com\/en\/2020\/02\/17\/a-review-of-unikaaqtuat-by-dr-michelle-la-flamme\/","title":{"rendered":"A Review of Unikkaaqtuat by Dr. Michelle La Flamme,"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Ephemeral.\u00a0 Surreal. Communal.<\/em><\/strong>
<\/em>Expeditions on the land<\/em><\/strong>.<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

January 24, 2019<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"
Photo prise par Vincent Desrosiers pendant la pr\u00e9sentation d’Unikkaaqtuat au Festival Alianait Arts Festival<\/em>.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Co-productions can sometimes produce amazing results.  Artcirq, The 7 Fingers of Montreal and Taqqut\nProductions fuse their creative power to create this show running January 22-25\nat the Playhouse Theatre in Vancouver. \nArtcirq is an \u201cInuit circus performance collective based in Igloolik,\nNunavut, The 7 Fingers is a collective of circus artists who have many\nperformances and are \u201cambassadors of diversity\u201d and Taqqut is an Inuit-owned\nfilm production company located in Igaluit, Nunavut.  This fusion creates \u201ccontemporary circus\u201d yet\nthis production is moored by the powerful Inuit storytelling that is featured\nin the mythological section of the story <\/em>as\n<\/em>Unikkaaqtuat<\/em> <\/em>means \u201cthe old\nstories\u201d.<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

This performance begins with a brilliant, oversized night sky projected\nonto a huge scrim as the openness of the land up North and the fierce power of\nthe cold is made visceral.  Director Neil\nChristopher brings a realistic story to life in a performance that incorporates\nthe present and the distant past by way of the mythic stories that are\nshared.  The individual story of a man\nwho is ill in the hospital is the backdrop for the mythic story that unfolds.\nThe language of an ancestral Inuit storyteller is heard in voice-over as a through-line\nfor the visual story being shared on stage. \nNothing was translated into English so the audience had a somewhat\ndisorienting experience requiring even more reliance on the senses to navigate\nthe narrative.  The realistic frame\ngrounds the storytelling in a contemporary space of a hospital bed where the\nprimary character receives a letter and a cassette from home that documents his\nnamesake.  Through magical realism we are\npropelled into his subconscious mind as the land of his ancestors is evoked and\nthe voice transports him into story and the land. A beautiful score and\nevocative use of lighting set these simple features in the larger story to\ngreat effect.  Dreamlike. In one scene, a\nhunter in traditional Inuit garments is telling parts of the story while\nworking on his bow and this simple moment was awash in a golden hue set on a\nbarren stage with a full blue-hued backdrop evoking the far north.  What you cannot understand in the language,\nyou can feel in the sound and visuals. Effective use of animation on the big\nscrim at the back of the stage and very restrained and subtle use of lighting\nwere used to express the raw emotions of the story. The show is about the\ntransmission of intergenerational knowledge and the healing power of oral\nhistory.  <\/p>\n\n\n\n

The world we are transported into is represented mythically on the\nscreen projections as the stage is peopled with dancers and a riotous circus\nelement that moves the story along. \nFrequent blackouts created a fragmented story line for what otherwise is\na surreal, visual feast.  Silhouettes,\nthe use of a boat that doubles as a dog sled, a lumbering polar bear and the\nappearance of the mythical rabbit and raven figures helped in the visual\ntelling of the tale.  Size and scale were\nmanipulated to give a sense of the enormity of the mythic dimension as well as\nthe surreal nature of the mythic figures including a blind hunter, a capsizing\nboat with a woman\u2019s long hair being braided, and a hunter fixing his bow and\nsharing teachings while seamlessly becoming the character who begins as the\ndisembodied voice-over at the start of the show. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Music is woven throughout this performance from an eerily captivating\nsoundscape, to realistic sled dogs, to throat singing, to guitar and accordion\nhinting at a kind of contemporary folksy\/bluesy Northern sound.  Everything was subtle and restrained including\none scene in which a single solo drummer rhythmically supports the understated but\nhaunting vocals delivered by the solo singer on stage.  <\/p>\n\n\n\n

This is mythic Inuit storytelling told through the tools available in the\nworld of the theatre, including a scrim effectively used for projections, a simple\nset with blocks that doubled as a glacier, ice flows and climbing apparatus for\nsome of the gymnastic numbers. The incredible physicality of the ensemble was\ndemonstrated in multiple ways throughout the performance from boasting\nrivalries about dexterity, to displays of bravery in feats requiring acrobatics\nand risky climbing, to hand games and physical feats involved in some trapeze\nwork.  The teasing and fun that was\nexpressed on stage made the characters very memorable and clearly offered a positive\nand upbeat environment for the actors to feel literally and metaphorically safe\nand supported. The interesting costume design gave the impression of leather\nwithout the bulk or weight.  The ensemble\nwork was outstanding and the joy that was expressed during the acrobatic and\ncommunal scenes was palpable.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Also, though we are used to seeing lithe performers do acrobatic feats\nin contemporary performances from Cirque\nDu Soleil<\/em> to Cavalia<\/em>, we are not\nused to seeing Inuit performers engaged in such acrobatics.  In one mesmerizing scene two Inuit performers\nface each other and gently begin to swing using the acrobatic elements to\nportray the important messages of the story. \nWe see these two women characters use the silks in very simple ways to\nportray dead female mythical figures floating in the sea set against an\nenormous backdrop of the sea projected behind them.  What was also exceptional and unique in the\nstaging of the circus element was the final acrobat who was hoisted onto the\nstage by the community of actors using a pulley system and a very thick rope as\nhis graceful and fractured movements symbolically represented the birth of a\nfigure from the oral story.  <\/p>\n\n\n\n

The weaving together of this powerful Inuit mythical story into the\nworld of the central character\u2019s life enables him to transcend the physicality\nof the hospital bed and emerge within the landscape, connect with his\nancestors, discover his namesake, be inspired by his ancestor\u2019s voice and, ultimately,\nheal! The performance features the comradery of the \u201ccommunity\u201d as circus\nensemble in order to demonstrate the healing that is part of the\ntelling\/sharing.  The choral vocal work\nand the ensemble work was playful and energetic giving a sense of deep ties to\nthe land and connections forged in small Northern communities.  Even without knowing the full translation of\nthe voice over, one can feel that this performance is a reminder of the\nimportance of maintaining a connection to community and honouring the wisdom in\nancestral knowledge. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Ephemeral.\u00a0 Surreal. Communal.Expeditions on the land. January 24, 2019 Co-productions can sometimes produce amazing results.  Artcirq, The 7 Fingers of Montreal and Taqqut Productions fuse their creative power to create this show running January 22-25 at the Playhouse Theatre in Vancouver.  Artcirq is an \u201cInuit circus performance collective based in Igloolik, Nunavut, The 7 Fingers is a collective of circus artists who have many performances and are \u201cambassadors of diversity\u201d and Taqqut is an Inuit-owned film production company located in Igaluit, Nunavut.  This fusion creates \u201ccontemporary circus\u201d yet this production is moored by the powerful Inuit storytelling that is featured in the mythological section of the story as Unikkaaqtuat means \u201cthe old stories\u201d. This performance begins with a brilliant, oversized night sky projected onto a huge scrim as the openness of the land up North and the fierce power of the cold is made visceral.  Director Neil Christopher brings a realistic story to life in a performance that incorporates the present and the distant past by way of the mythic stories that are shared.  The individual story of a man who is ill in the hospital is the backdrop for the mythic story that unfolds. The language of an ancestral Inuit […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":6231,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"ngg_post_thumbnail":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[198],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-6229","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-unikkaaqtuat-fr"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.7doigts.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6229","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.7doigts.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.7doigts.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.7doigts.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.7doigts.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=6229"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/blog.7doigts.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6229\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":6233,"href":"https:\/\/blog.7doigts.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6229\/revisions\/6233"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.7doigts.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/6231"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.7doigts.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=6229"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.7doigts.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=6229"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.7doigts.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=6229"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}