13 minute read
Recreating Frankenstein
Recreating Frankenstein Chicago’s Manual Cinema is bringing Frankenstein to Whitehorse by Grace Snider
The Yukon Arts Centre is presenting a recreation of Frankenstein in an upcoming show. Once heard, it is hard to forget Mary Shelley’s dark tale of creation. Published in 1818, it tells the tale of Victor Frankenstein, a man obsessed with creating life. In his efforts, he feverishly brings together bits and pieces of different people’s bodies to terrible and unforeseen consequences.
As the story goes, while the Shelleys were traveling with friends in Switzerland, cooped up one rainy day reading ghost stories out loud, their friend Lord Byron challenged each of them to write a horror story. Thus began Frankenstein.
Now, 200 years later, Chicago’s Manual Cinema is bringing Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein back to life, recreating and patching together the stories of Mary Shelley and her characters Victor Frankenstein and The Creature.
“We were fascinated by the story of Mary Shelley, an extraordinary woman who invented a literary genre (science fiction) in a time of huge societal change,” said Sarah Fornace, co-artistic director of Manual Cinema. “Our production explores abandonment and obsession and technical sweetness—the allure of creating the thing, or solving the puzzle that can, at times, obscure the ethical issues and broader implications of one’s work. In Mary’s story, we see reflections of Victor and The Creature. The book is Mary’s ‘hideous progeny,’ and she experiences great loss in its wake. We also explore the role that motherhood plays Manual Cinema’s Frankenstein at the Yukon Arts Centre Photo by Michael Brosilow. Photo provided by Yukon Arts Centre
in the story. Wollonstonecraft died due to complications with Mary’s childbirth. Mary herself lost two children while writing the novel. Frankenstein is a novel that is told in a series of frames. Mary’s story is the outer frame of our show, but it also intersects and parallels Frankenstein as if the storylines are each the subconscious of each other”.
Julia Miller, co-artistic director of Manual Cinema, said the story stitches together two stories to tell an unexpected tale about the beauty and horror of creation. (A tale she said is appropriate for younger viewers who would be fine with a PG-13 film.) Manual achieves this through a combination of shadow puppetry, live actors in camera, 3D puppets, immersive surround sound design and a live original score written for an array of percussion instruments, including clarinets, flutes, cello and vocals. All are performed live. “There are even little robots that bring the stage to life playing percussion instruments when the creature wakes,” said Miller, “who invites audiences to get onstage after the show to see the puppets up close and speak with the cast and crew. The experience is watching a feature film, but the whole thing is made live on stage in front of you … we hope the audience is moved by our story and experiences live performance in a new way that engages
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Julia Miller and Sarah Fornace are co-artistic directors of Frankenstein, coming to the Yukon Arts Centre in March
and excites them” said Miller. Though the play has been performed at the Public Theatre in New York City and the Edinburgh Fringe Festival in Scotland, as well as in Nashville, Chile, Texas and more, this spring marks the first time it has toured Canada. Miller said “the company is excited to visit the Yukon and hopes to see the northern lights and experience local culture”.
Frankenstein shows at the Yukon Arts Centre on Thursday, March 12 at 7 p.m. Tickets are available at YukonTickets.com, or by calling the Yukon Arts Centre box office at 867-667-8574.
Grace Snider is a lifelong Yukoner with an enduring enthusiasm for all-things Yukon!
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Paddling in the Peel by Leighann Chalykoff
In the early 1900s, when she was a teenager, Bobbi Rose Koe’s great-great-grandmother and her friend paddled a moose skin boat through the dangerous stretch of fast-flowing high water at Peel Canyon.
In the Gwich’in language the rocky, high-cliffed canyon is known as Tshuu tr’adaojìich’uu or Tshuu tr’idaodìich’uu, which directly translates as “water-rough, hateful.”
“When you’re going through it you have to pay attention and work as a team,” said Koe, who is Teetl’it Gwich’in from Fort McPherson. “There are huge eddies the size of a room and if you get stuck in one you’ll get slammed against the cliffs. You could get pushed into an area where you won’t make it out.”
Usually, the women and children would get out of the boats and walk around the canyon area. Only the men would navigate the rough waters, but this time the two women needed to do it.
In 2015, more than 100 years later, Koe joined a group of five youth from First Nations in the Yukon and the Northwest Territories on an 18-day, 500-kilometre leadership canoe trip that began on the Wind River and finished in Fort McPherson, NWT.
Along the way they also passed
Credit: Photo by Bobbi Rose Koe
Bobbi Rose Koe and her father, Abraham Koe, boating up from the family’s camp on the Peel River
through the treacherous Peel Canyon. It was the first time Koe had paddled through without her older, more experienced family members in the boat. Once they made it through, she thought about her fearless great-greatgrandmother and she celebrated. The 2015 journey was organized by the Yukon Chapter of the Canadian Parks and Wilderness Society to bring youth from Aklavik, Tsiigehtchic, Fort McPherson, Old Crow and Mayo into the wild lands. The goal was to teach leadership skills and to connect the youth to their ancestral lands. Geri-Lee Buyck, from the First Nation of Na-Cho Nyäk Dun, also went on the 2015 trip after being convinced to go by elders in her home community of Mayo.
She was unsure at first—Buyck didn’t know whether she would be up to the challenge—but she pushed out of her comfort zone and she surprised herself by rising to the occasion. In the end she had a life-altering experience. “It changed me in that I was able to awaken this strong connection and this strong eye-opening responsibility that we have as young people,” said Buyck. “We began helping more and working with our elders and leadership in our community to fight this battle in a good way, to protect the Peel.” During the trip the group formed tight bonds. Afterward they came together to create Youth of the Peel. Moved by the experience they had travelling through the river systems, they worked to ensure the pristine wilderness was protected. They also worked to bring other youth to the area, to see the land and breathe the air, so they could develop their own relationships with the plants, the crystal-clear water and the animals.
For the past few years, they have offered youth the opportunity to take the journey through the watershed where they hone their paddling skills, share knowledge and stories, and talk about the future. CONTINUED ON PAGE 7 “ …if you get stuck in one you’ll get slammed against the cliffs. You could get pushed into an area where you won’t make it out.
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“I didn’t really want to get up in front of people and speak, but it was my grandfathers who nudged me and poked me and gave me the eye, and literally told me to get up and speak because I had a connection to the land and to the people and the animals that were there,” said Koe. “I knew firsthand who I was speaking for and they didn’t have a voice, so I had to speak for the elders and for the young people who continue to travel the area.”
The process of ensuring the Peel was protected was long. Environmental groups and First Nations have been working toward this goal for decades and there were many bumps along the way. “There was a time when my grandfather called me and he was crying because the government was treating us like we weren’t around,” said Koe. “They were going to open it right up to development. It was like the end of the world for us because that area’s home for us.”
Both Koe and Buyck’s families have a long history in the area.
“It’s like how when you’re a kid, you want to go to Disney World? Well, my Disney World was the Peel Watershed. That’s where I wanted to go because that’s what my grandfather talked about,” said Koe. “It’s a place of beauty and stories and our people, our heritage, our culture and everything that’s where our people all came from and where our people all were living before colonization.”
In August 2019, the Peel Watershed Regional Land Use Plan was signed by the Yukon government, the First Nation of Na-Cho Nyäk Dun, the Tr’ondek Hwëch’in, the Vuntut Gwitchin Government, and
Bobbi Rose Koe and Gestie Tees mapping out their path while sitting on a mountain they hiked on the Wind River Credit: Photo by Jill Pangman
the Gwich’in Tribal Council. The plan laid out how the area will be managed and protected into the future.
“It was mind-blowing to hear it was protected. I’m thankful and my grandparents are happy that most of it is protected, but I think there’s still a lot of work yet to do, and I think it’s going to take a while,” said Koe. “But I know the sun will shine over it for the rest of our lives and the lives of my grandchildren and my greatgreat-grandchildren too.
Follow the ongoing work of Youth of the Peel through its Facebook page at Facebook.com/ YouthOfThePeel
This series is provided by the Government of Yukon Historic Sites to highlight the work of Yukoners and their connections to the territory’s heritage.
Credit: Photo by Dana Tizya-Tramm
Geri-Lee Buyck holding white fish that was caught in the Peel River near Road River Camp
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On March 8 th we recognize International Women’s Day, a call to action to renew our efforts. While innovation and technology can empower women and girls, a growing digital divide means that women are underrepresented in many STEM fi elds, both at home and abroad. Gender equality is a fundamental human right. Increasing the number of women in these fi elds is a powerful way to fuel change that improves the lives of people across the country.
Hon. Larry Bagnell, Member of Parliament, Yukon 204-204 Black Street, Whitehorse, YT, Y1A 2M9 Tel: (867) 668-6565, Email: larry.bagnell.c1@parl.gc.ca
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