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Theatre review: Frozen River shows kids a path to reconciliation

Playwrights do a good job making sophisticated arguments relatively digestible for young audiences, avoid heavy-handedness in placing responsibility and allotting blame

The character of Grandmother Moon watches with glee while the character Wapam hoists a puppet child in Frozen River, playing at the Waterfront Theatre on Granville Island.
The character of Grandmother Moon watches with glee while the character Wapam hoists a puppet child in Frozen River, playing at the Waterfront Theatre on Granville Island. Photo by Leif Norman /courtesy of Manitoba Theatre for Young People

Frozen River (nîkwatinsîpiy)

When: To Oct. 16.

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Where: Waterfront Theatre, Granville Island.

Tickets & Info: $18-$35 at carouseltheatre.ca

Reconciliation between Indigenous and non-Indigenous Canadians will never meaningfully occur until today’s young people, when they take over running the world, understand better than the rest of us where we went wrong and what we have to do to make things right.

Frozen River (nîkwatinsîpiy), from Manitoba Theatre for Young People, aims to help kick-start that understanding. Vancouver’s Carousel Theatre for Young People advertises the play as appropriate for ages 5 and up. In theatrical language aimed at pre-teens and younger, it dramatizes the schism that reconciliation is meant to heal. The two young protagonists illustrate how healing may be possible and how difficult it is likely to be. 

In front of designer Andrew Moro’s large circular set piece that serves as the moon as well as a screen for shadow characters and projections, Grandmother Moon (Krystle Pederson) explains that one day long ago two girls were born and grew up together in Cree territory that would eventually become Manitoba: Wâpam (Keely McPeek) to a Cree family and Eilidh (Mallory James) to a settler family from Scotland.

Though at first Wâpam speaks only Cree and Eilidh only English, the girls learn to understand each other. Wâpam teaches Eilidh which local plants are safe to eat. She teaches Eilidh’s little sister (a puppet) how to make snares to trap small animals for food. The girls bond and promise to spend one winter with each other’s families when the river freezes.

But Eilidh, convinced of her culture’s superiority, gradually backs away from her promise and from Wâpam. “Why can’t you just be like us,” she asks. The friendship ends.

Krystle Pederson as Grandmother Moon in Frozen River, playing at the Waterfront Theatre on Granville Island until Oct. 16.
Krystle Pederson as Grandmother Moon in Frozen River, playing at the Waterfront Theatre on Granville Island until Oct. 16. Photo by Leif Norman /Courtesy of Manitoba Theatre for Young People

Grandmother Moon then jumps us ahead seven generations to the present, where the descendants of Eilidh and Wâpam, who also share a birthday, attend the same high school but live in two solitudes. The non-Indigenous girl is outraged that the pipes in her suburban house have been frozen for four days. When the Indigenous girl explains that her reserve hasn’t had clean water for 18 years, the other is shocked into the beginning of an understanding, and perhaps a change of heart. 

The three actors are charming. Playwrights Michaela Washburn, Joelle Peters and Carrie Costello have done a good job making sophisticated arguments relatively digestible for young audiences and avoiding heavy-handedness in placing responsibility and allotting blame. Director Katie German introduces visual elements, including the puppet children and a puppet turtle, to help enliven the stage.

But Frozen River relies more heavily on dialogue with less theatrical spectacle than most plays aimed at young audiences. I saw it the day after the National Day of Truth and Reconciliation with my granddaughters, ages five and eight. Two days earlier, they attended a school assembly in which the meaning of the holiday was explained. I wondered what they would make of the play.

They were attentive for the full 65 minutes, even the five-year-old, playgoing for the first time. They understood the dynamics of the friendships, thought it cool that the girls had the same birthday, and were fascinated by the projections and puppets. The cultural conflicts seemed beyond them for now, but all of us enjoyed being nudged toward a better future by intelligent entertainment.

  1. A scene from Frozen River. Carousel Theatre for Young People opens its 2022-23 season with the West Coast premiere of Manitoba Theatre for Young People’s award-winning play at Granville Island’s Waterfront Theatre from Sep. 28 to Oct. 16.

    Frozen River aims to thaw relations across generations

  2. Peter Pan Goes Wrong.

    Theatre review: Peter Pan Goes Wrong gets most everything right

  3. The Firehall Arts Centre at 380 E. Cordova St. in Vancouver.

    Firehall at 40: Still showcasing cutting edge creativity

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