Combining circus spectacle and Inuit myth, Unikkaaqtuat both stuns and stumbles GlobeArts
Circus-theatre hybrid Unikkaaqtuat made its world premiere at the National Arts Centre's new Indigenous Theatre in Ottawa on Jan. 9, 2020.Patrick Léonard, Terence Uyarak, Guillaume Ittukssarjuat Saladin, Neil ChristopherIn the most startling scene of the new circus-theatre hybrid, an Arctic ice floe, as comically overloaded as a clown car, tips, and the men and women crowded onto it suddenly topple, terrifyingly, into the frigid sea.
There’s a story to this aerial act, that of the woman’s transformation into “the mother of sea mammals,” just one of several sea changes suffered in the Inuit myths that are the inspiration for this unprecedented North-South artistic collaboration. Nunavut's Artcirq and Montreal's The 7 Fingers collaborated on the project, along with an Arctic film production company called Taggut Productions.Other hybrid highlights include depictions of mythical beings that are either born out of the earth or become the earth .which often drags or feels haphazard in its overall pacingstory and spectacle bump up against each other less satisfyingly or pass one another like two ice floes in the night.
To pass the time, Levy listens to a cassette tape of the “old stories” recorded by an elder, and as he slips in and out of consciousness, he slips in and out of these fantastic worlds. The character’s overall arc ends abruptly, with a few hasty words from the doctor about the healing power of story. This conclusion deserves more thought and stage time.
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