Luminato Festival’s ‘Aalaapi’ offers a literal window into life in the North

Aalaapi

Created by the Collectif Aalaapi, based on an original idea by Laurence Dauphinais and Marie-Laurence Rancourt, directed by Dauphinais. luminatofestival.com

This unusual production offers a window onto the life of Inuit communities in the North.

A literal window: the set is a white A-frame house with a rectangular cut-out window, and the audience watches roommates Nancy (Nancy Saunders, whose artist name is Niap) and Ulivia (Olivia Ikey Duncan) as they go about their lives in a small Nunavik village.

A second element is an audio documentary by Marie-Laurence Rancourt in which five young Inuit woman talk about living between northern and southern Quebec. When the radio’s on in Nancy and Ulivia’s house (as it so often is), we hear the documentary, accompanied by lovely graphics of some of the words spoken and videos of the local scenery.

Before seeing “Aalaapi” I might have said “bleak scenery,” but a big point of the enterprise is to challenge stereotypes and sensationalism about life in Northern communities. This is subtly cued in an early moment as Nancy and Ulivia talk about how cold it is outside, underlining that cold is still noteworthy to them and that talking about the weather is something most everyone can relate to.

There’s not much of a plot, more a mood and a wash of images, sound and words (its Inuktitut title means “choosing silence to hear something beautiful”). It’s performed in English, French and Inuktitut with multilingual translation projected onto the front of the house, becoming part of its visual imagery.

The show, directed by Laurence Dauphinais and presented by Native Earth Performing Arts and Le Théâtre français de Toronto in association with the Luminato Festival, segues immediately into a post-show discussion in which the performers invite any and all questions about their lives and culture, underlining that the show is a form of advocacy for and demystification of Indigenous experiences.

After its brief run at the Luminato Festival, the production is traveling to the National Arts Festival in Makhanda, South Africa from June 23 to 24.

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