Lucie Idlout stars in Toronto play

In a novel career move, Inuit singer Lucie Idlout will star in Two Words for Snow, a play that opens this weekend at the Artword Theatre in Toronto.

The play’s Toronto publicists describe Two Words for Snow as “a lyrical account of the love, passion and betrayal surrounding the 1909 Peary expedition to the North Pole.”

It’s written by poet Richard Sanger, directed by Ross Manson, and produced by Volcano, an award-winning experimental theatre company from Toronto.

Sanger’s play tells the story of Matthew Henson, a black man who accompanied Robert Peary to the North Pole, and whom Peary later betrayed and discarded.

Idlout, best known in Nunavut for the CD E5770 — My Mother’s Name, is also the host of the APTN show Buffalo Tracks. In Two Words for Snow, she plays the role of Akatingwah, Matthew Henson’s Greenlandic lover.

The play opens Jan. 11 and runs to Jan. 19.