Theatre review: White Noise serves up laughs and food for thought around Truth and Reconciliation
Strong cast, clever design help drive a story of two families whose differences come to light at a dinner party
Sam Bob, Anais West, and Braiden Houle in White Noise. Photo by Moonrider Productions
The Firehall Arts Centre presents White Noise until May 1
“DO YOU WANT the truth or the reconciliation?” asks Tse’kwi, alluding to the national day of observance the Canadian government created to recognize the trauma of residential schools in the country.
The question, spoken at a climactic point of a dinner party gone awry, crystallizes a fact of Canadian society, that a deeper Indigenous truth lies beneath the facade of reconciliation. In Taran Kootenhayoo’s play White Noise, this notion of dual realities is explored with aplomb, through an offering of irreverent humour and clear-eyed insights.
Collecting a fortune from the sale of his mobile game to a major corporation, Windwalker (Braiden Houle) moves his family to the affluent neighborhood of West Point Grey, buying a house there for his parents Tse’kwi (Columpa Bobb) and Deneyu (Sam Bob). Next door, Jason (Mike Wasko) and Ashley (Anita Wittenberg) live with their daughter, Jessika (Anais West), whose passion for social media has amassed a large following. Out of ideas for reaching a subscriber milestone, with the National Day for Truth and Reconciliation on her mind, Jessika decides to invite their new neighbours over for a welcoming dinner. As the two families share fried bologna and strawberry spinach salad, the evening begins to unravel when conversations start pooling around their differences.
Crafting his comedy on a base of dualism, the late young Vancouver playwright Kootenhayoo has drawn up strikingly opposite characters: Deneyu works with his hands for a living, building houses and sweat lodges, whereas Jason is a life coach who doles out advice, his livelihood entirely abstract. Their wives, likewise, are worlds apart: Tse’kwi exudes calmness in her dealings while Ashley personifies anxiety, shaken by the slightest disturbance.
Humour ensues when their realities clash. Deneyu improvises a grace before dinner when Ashley asks if they have a pre-meal ritual. Meanwhile, Windwalker must distill their origins for Jason, reducing Alexis Nakota Sioux Nation territory to a single word: “Alberta”. When jokes give way to drama, however, the play finds balance, uniting the younger guests in a mutual love of technology while the parents spar over ideas of privilege and discrimination. This dichotomy between generations seems to suggest the possibility for greater future understanding, by the way youthful awareness can reshape current dialogue.
Anita Wittenberg and Columpa Bobb. Photo by Moonrider Productions
The cast of this inaugural production is a delight to watch, bolstering the writing’s strength with their own intensity and comic timing, Sam Bob and Columpa Bobb especially vibrant. Director Renae Morriseau keeps staging dynamic with Brad Trenaman’s lighting design and Lauchlin Johnston’s set, syncing coloured orbs of light, fixed points on a backdrop connecting deltoid shards, with the characters’ phone interactions unfolding on a projected screen. The angular set is a clever design, web-like in reference to modern technologies, but also faceted in appearance, appealing as a metaphor for many-sided issues. Projection designer Candelario Andrade matches premade images with imagined items on stage, completing their effect when selfies and food snapshots are taken and real items are then projected on the phone-screen mock-up.
In line with the piece’s dualistic nature, the play’s title, White Noise, is a reference both to information static and ethnic origin. Written with a frankness that elicits equal laughter and introspection, Kootenhayoo has created a work of theatre that can be taken several ways; whether as a heightened look at family differences, or an opportunity to examine a vital topic from an earnest perspective, there is plenty to experience in this comic feast of storytelling.
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