Kiinalik: These Sharp Tools at BIAF22
A dramatic meeting between two extraordinary artists, examining their intertwined histories, colonial legacies and the changing climate we all face.
In the Inuktitut language, ‘kiinalik’ translates to mean the knife is sharp, or, ‘it has a face’.
A concert and a conversation, Kiinalik: These Sharp Tools by Buddies in Bad Times Theatre (Canada) is the meeting place of two people, and between the northern and southern extremes of Canada.
Creator/performer and songwriter Evalyn Parry combines social activism with powerful theatre, and supported the creation of countless new works during her tenure as artistic director of Toronto queer theatre company Buddies in Bad Times from 2015 to 2020. Poet, performer, and curator Laakkuluk Williamson Bathory is a Sobey Art award-winning artist based in Iqaluit, Nunavut, and a fierce advocate for Inuit artists.
The two women met on board a ship, part of an Arctic expedition from northern Canada to Greenland, and vowed to bring their contrasting storytelling traditions together in a single work. Sharing a stage, Parry’s heartfelt personal anthems combine with Williamson Bathory’s gripping uajeerneq – a Greenlandic mask dance – to give voice to their intertwined histories, colonial legacies and the changing climate we all face.
Using folksong and throat singing, lively audience engagement and an extraordinary ice-walled set, Kiinalik: These Sharp Tools is a provocative, poignant drama of understanding and reconciliation, unforgettable in its transgressive power.
Tickets £18/£16 Concession
Post show discussion: Friday 4 November
Part of BIAF’s 2022 focus on artists from Canada.
A performance somewhere between cabaret, ceilidh, gig and theatrical poem... ★★★★ The Guardian