Rising from the darkness
Arviat drama club shines positive light on dark of Night
Darrell Greer
Northern News Services
Wednesday, June 22, 2016
ARVIAT
The John Arnalukjuak High School (JAHS) Drama Club put on a hard-hitting, controversial play with a strong message in Arviat this past week.
The community has been struggling on the heels of its second sudden death of the past year recently, and was slow to accept the Christopher Morris-penned Night, with only the final show attracting an audience of about 200.
Director Gord Billard missed the annual Global Dignity Day events in Arviat this past October, when he took some time to be with his father as he recovered from surgery.
When he returned to Arviat, he found the Night script sitting on his desk.
Billard said the script was interesting to him because it was based in Pond Inlet, had a fair share of Inuktitut, and was written during the past five years, or so.
He said it also had him feeling a little uncomfortable due to its graphic content.
"It was a pretty powerful script and, as I finished reading it, I wondered if we could even do it in Arviat," said Billard.
"I read it to my senior students and they said it should be done because it had a powerful message.
"I then brought it to the drama club and they were on-board with it right away.
"They knew it would be challenging, but they were up for that challenge."
Morris wrote the play in workshops with youth both in Pond Inlet and in Iceland.
Many of the names are reflective of people in Pond Inlet, including the Candy Man character.
The story revolves around the female friends of Gloria and Piuyuq.
Gloria, without telling Piuyuq, sends an e-mail to a Toronto museum looking for Piuyuq's grandfather, who had left Pond Inlet during the tuberculosis epidemic of the 1970s and never returned.
Gloria discovered the museum had actually kept his bones for historical purposes.
She then asked for the bones to be returned, and a museum worker named Daniella Swan soon arrived with the grandfather's bones.
Daniella's arrival opens old wounds with Piuyuq's father, due to the abuse he went through earlier in his life.
The situation soon explodes, with Piuyuq's father beating her up, and Gloria committing suicide due to what she had caused.
The JAHS Drama Club's production featured Ruth Kaviok and Robyn Koomuk in the role of Piuyuq, Cheryl Nibgoarsi in the role of Daniella Swan and Shelby Angalik in the role of Gloria Muktar.
Billard said at the end of the story, Piuyuq takes her grandfather's bones and buries them in the Pond Inlet graveyard.
He said she speaks to his spirit while she's there, telling it her community is going through some very rough times and she's scared it's slowing dying.
"She gives a very eloquent speech and then delivers a powerful message to her fellow teenagers, telling them they have to be strong, stand up for their lives and be there for each other.
"It's, really, quite a positive message that tends to be quite moving after all the trauma you see in the play.
"I make it sound so gloomy and dark, but really it's not.
"In fact, a lot of people who thought it was going to be all gloomy and dark were surprised at how light they felt at the end."
Billard said the play only drew about 30 people to its opening public performance, which he attributed to the rough times the community has gone through recently.
And, although he understood that, a conversation with a fellow teacher led to him looking at the situation in a different light.
"I was talking with Charlene Paterson about the lack of attendance at the early shows, and how we understood why some people might back away from the play, especially those close to the suicide we had a couple of weeks ago, when she said that was all well and good, but, for everyone else, it's almost a community responsibility to recognize these kids up on that stage are the ones who are OK," said Billard.
"They're the ones who are fighting against what's going on with suicidal thoughts, depression and everything else.
"They're the ones trying to deliver the message that there's help out there, and people shouldn't be ashamed or afraid to look for it when times get tough.
"That just rang so loudly with me, in that people can stay away for various reasons, but they're really betraying some of the finest kids we have, who come to school every day, do their best, and show you can be successful here.
"They're serving as role models; as shining lights to a lot of kids who are probably not feeling so good about themselves, but who look at these other kids and think what they're doing is really cool."
