This one actually moves quite fast considering it covers almost 500 years in under 400 pages but it  reads in some way like a meditation. And it’s certainly inspiring readers to reflect on their lives and our history.

Based on an Inuit story, the play starts in 1535 when a woman finds an orphaned polar bear cub and decides to adopt it as her own. This cub, named Angu’řuaq, acts as our eyes throughout the years, following the history of the Northwest Passage as he hunts alongside his adoptive family, witnesses the downfall of the Franklin expedition in the 1800s, and comes across entrepreneurs in 2029 who are hoping to create a cruise route through the rapidly melting ice. 

A unique look at climate change and colonization, this play is also special because of the intense consultations the playwright and Inuit consultants and actors engaged in to ensure the names and cultural content were appropriate. Plus, the book includes a translation into Nattilingmiutut, a dialect of Inuktitut, by Janet Tamalik Mcgrath, making it the longest manuscript that exists in the dialect. So an incredible language revitalization project as well!

I’ve seen some photos of the stage design and it looks incredible, especially the polar bear puppet! I’d love to see it live some day. Big thanks to Playwrights Canada Press for a copy to review!