Moving drama at MTYP gives voice to boy who changed law

The heroic true tale of Norway House Cree Nation-born Jordan River Anderson came home Friday night, as Manitoba Theatre for Young People presented Yvette Nolan’s Jordan.

The touring production, a collaboration with Geordie Theatre, runs weekends through Oct. 11, with additional stops in Toronto, Vancouver and Ottawa’s National Arts Centre.

Having several of Anderson’s family members witness the local première underscored the evening with poignancy. Elder and Pine Creek First Nation member Barbara Nepinak added her own dignified presence and prayers following MTYP artistic director Pablo Felices-Luna’s welcoming remarks.

The season-opener also marks the Winnipeg-raised playwright’s homecoming; the Algonquin playwright, director, dramaturg, actor and educator was a fixture in our local theatre community for many years before going on to serve as artistic director for Native Earth Performing Arts from 2003 to ‘11, among other contributions.

The 55-minute fantastical production gives voice to Anderson, a child born with particularly complex special needs who languished in a Winnipeg hospital for years as the federal and provincial governments squabbled over who should pay for his highly specialized care.

Alanis Obomsawin’s 2019 NFB documentary Jordan River Anderson: The Messenger depicts the horror and heartbreak of a paralyzed bureaucracy, with Anderson’s tragic death in 2005 at age six ultimately leading to Jordan’s Principle.

The child-first human rights milestone, now entrenched in Canadian law, ensures all Indigenous children receive the same level of compassionate, immediate health care as their non-Indigenous counterparts.

Nolan weaves thematic threads in her mostly linear-based narrative like fabric in a ribbon skirt. The play is structured as a quasi-vision quest in which Jordan (Braiden Houle), guided by his life-size, anthropomorphic spirit bear, Maskwa (Wahsonti:io Kirby, who infuses their furry character with plenty of sass, indignantly retorting “I’m a spirit bear, not a polar bear”).

In Jordan’s dream world, we encounter a series of characters struggling with a systemic lack of care who find ultimate healing, thanks to Jordan’s Principle.

As the young boy caped in a star blanket peppers Maskwa — that’s “bear” in Cree — with questions, he realizes the continuing impact of his own legacy, finally at peace with his all-too-brief life and premature death.

Houle’s spot-on portrayal as the show’s protagonist captures both the wonder and innocence of a child, immune to whatever cruelties life — and particularly, illness — may throw.

Jimmy Blais’s sensitive direction makes effective use of Amy Keith’s simple yet gorgeously elegant set, evoking a woodland of birch trees that later shape-shift into a forest of urban office towers.

A special bravo to Tania Marchildon for her truly mesmerizing, magical bear headpiece, including a moving jaw and eyes that glisten under Tim Rodrigue’s evocative lighting.

The production rounds out with Rachel Quintero Faia’s effective costumes, including Maskwa’s furry bear suit and Jordan’s kid-friendly pyjamas, and Troy Slocum’s dramatic sound design, which features a crescendo of drums as Jordan and Maskwa dance through their journey.

The well-balanced, versatile cast also features Ravyn Bekh as Kelly (among others) a young Indigenous woman who sobs as she tells Jordan and Maskwa that she feels she needs to forget who she is, proving that illness isn’t restricted only to body and bones.

Her later appearance as mover-and-shaker Cindy — who declares to her wide-eyed visitors, “I have superpowers,” as she fights for human rights for Indigenous youth — adds relevant content, although it teeters on the edge of being overly didactic, as she delivers a slew of statistical facts and figures.

Krystle Pederson lends her own gravitas in another of her roles, Vee (presumably to stand for Virginia, Anderson’s mother who perished in grief after her son’s death), whose singing in her native tongue to her dying child during the show’s brief prologue sends shivers down the spine.

One is well advised to bring tissues for the play’s denouement, as we arrive now at a celebratory powwow back at Norway House, during which Vee descends the theatre’s stairs to reunite with her beloved child, eliciting open weeping from the audience on opening night.

Nolan effectively embeds a recurring device throughout this story, as Jordan questions Maskwa about the “soft hands, gentle touch and smell of tobacco” that enveloped him during his final moments on this earth.

As he embraces his mother, that query has now been answered, with this fearless, pint-sized superhero whose short life has saved so many others, now at peace — and at home — as his journey comes full circle.

holly.harris@shaw.ca