PLAYWRIGHT’S NOTES

–     There are two distinct Arctics in this play: the Arctic of the Inuit and the Arctic of the Southerners. The Arctic of the Inuit is warm, raw, and fiercely alive. It feels and sounds like the music of Tanya Tagaq. The Arctic of the Southerners is cold, mystical in its foreignness, and rarefied. It feels and sounds like John Luther Adams’s album The Far Country.

–     I imagine the polar bears as large puppets that have to be manipulated by more than one person.

–     In the poem “Eskimo Chick,” the guttural sound “ahhma” is similar to Inuit throat singing.

–     I can provide pronunciation guides and recordings for the Inuktitut and the French.

–     Spoken-word poems Eskimo Chick and No Sleep for the Wicked by Taqralik Partridge used with the kind permission of the author.

–     Inuktitut translation by Saimata Manning.

–     Inuktitut review by Janet Tamalik McGrath.