JORDAN: GRATITUDE

I have nothing but gratitude for Geordie Theatre’s production of playwright Yvette Nolan’s Jordan.

Not too far into this performance, I asked myself if I’d be happy about my grandchildren, especially the Indigenous ones, attending this production, and the answer was such a quick and easy yes that I could feel my organs relaxing.

I’d been nervous. The story that inspired this script is tough, and so is the larger problem that the story represents. Jordan River Anderson, a Cree boy from northern Manitoba, was born with a rare muscular disorder. Jordan couldn’t talk and he couldn’t breathe on his own. Because the federal and provincial governments were in the habit of bickering about who should pay for services for First Nations kids living on reserves, Jordan fell through the bureaucratic cracks and, when he died at five years of age in 2005, he had spent years in a hospital but had never experienced life in a loving home.

Jordan’s death inspired Jordan’s Principle, a policy framework that recognizes systemic anti-Indigenous discrimination and “ensures that First Nations children can access all public services when they need them… The government of first contact pays for the service and resolves jurisdictional/payment disputes later.” The application of Jordan’s Principle has been imperfect, but the principle exists.

Still, how do you handle a story about the death of a child, the social abandonment of a child, and a positive bureaucratic response in a show that’s designed primarily for kids?

Yvette Nolan’s strategies are tenderness and fun.

The baseline is fun. In Jordan, the title character wakes up in his hospital bed and realizes that he can move, breathe, speak — and fly! According to Maskwa, a spirit bear who has suddenly appeared, Jordan is a superhero, and she takes him on a journey to prove it. As they soar over the northern landscape and then into the city, they each hold one fist out, Superman-like, but their feet are dancing, powwow style.

The performances are fantastic. Braiden Houle’s Jordan is like the distillation of a five-year-old’s purity. He is dazzled by the landscape and its creatures, and thrilled with his own capacity. Wahsontí:io Kirby’s Maskwa is Jordan’s clown-like, watchful, equally energetic sidekick. The electricity between these two powers the production.

Let’s talk about tenderness. Abandonment is every child’s biggest fear. Nolan addresses this potential for terror with care.

On their journey, Maskwa introduces Jordan to a single mom named Tyra who isn’t getting the help she needs. When the awfulness of Tyra’s situation becomes overwhelming for Jordan, Maskwa honours his response and quickly moves on.

In another scene, when Jordan encounters a distraught young girl named Kelly, he starts to exercise his agency when he encourages her to seek help — maybe at school.

And, in a moving encounter, he meets Cindy Blackstock, the Gitxsan activist, who played a significant role in the 2016 Canadian Human Rights Tribunal that determined the Canadian government was discriminating against First Nations kids in its distribution of certain child and family welfare services. Blackstock was also a co-creator of Jordan’s Principle. Amazingly, the framing of all this in Jordan is never heavy-handed. Experientially, this scene is about Jordan finding an adult in a position of power who treats him with care and respect.

Krystle Pederson plays Cindy Blackstock with persuasively frank generosity, and she brings similar groundedness to other characters, including Jordan’s mom. Ravyn R. Bekh also brings depth and restraint to several roles.

In the show’s most viscerally resonant motif, Jordan repeatedly remembers soft hands on his face and the smell of ceremonial tobacco. When he realizes that he’s remembering his mom, he knows that he was never abandoned.

I went into this show spooked but curious. Jordan reassured me and left me with hope and grateful tears.

JORDAN by Yvette Nolan. Directed by Jimmy Blais. A Geordie Theatre (Montréal) presented by The Cultch and Carousel Theatre for Young People production. In The Cultch’s Historic Theatre until November 15. Tickets and information.

PHOTO CREDIT: (L to R: Braiden Houle, Wahsontí:io Kirby, Krystle Pederson, and Ravyn R. Bekh)

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