Lögberg-Heimskringla - 05.11.2004, Page 10

10 • Lögberg-Heimskringla » Friday 5 November 2004
Crossing the North Pole
Icelandic playwright loves living in Muskoka
David Jón Fuller
Bala, ON
Maja Ardal may be far
from the city lights of Toronto
in her chosen home of Bala,
nestled in the rugged Canadian
Shield terrain of Muskoka, but
she has no qualms about that.
“This is my creative home
base,” she says.
Born in Iceland, she went
to school in Scotland because
of her father’s academic work
there. “I was a little Scottish
school kid and a little Icelandic
farm kid,” she said in a 2002
interview in Muskoka maga-
zine. Among other things, it
leaves her with an
Icelandic/Scottish accent
which is diffícult to identify
but poetic nonetheless.
It’s in keeping with her
chosen profession — a life in
theatre. She embarked on it at
the age of 17, and is now 55. A
few years ago she made her
first foray into playwriting
with Midnight Sun, which pre-
miered at Toronto’s Tarragon
Theatre, and went on to pro-
ductions in Iceland and the
United States.
Theatre also runs in her
blood. Her grandfather, Páll
Ardal, founded the Leikfélag
Akureyrar, with a group of
other people. It’s now a profes-
sional theatre, but she says, “In
those days there were no pro-
fessional theatres [in
Akureyri]. You just got people
together to put on a play.”
If Maja’s face seems
familiar, it’s probably because
in addition to writing for the
stage and directing — she
recently helmed a production
of Stones in his Pockets for
Alberta Theatre Projects in
Calgary — she’s also an actor.
One of her recurring television
roles was Clara Potts on Road
to Avonlea, which at its height
boasted 2.5 million viewers,
and was available in 140 coun-
tries.
Maja’s home is a cottage
on Medora Lake, just north of
Bala. Being away from the
hustle and bustle of the big city
is an important part of her cre-
ative work. “It’s crucial,” she
says. The beauty of the coun-
tryside helps her in her daily
routine. “Every day, I start by
opening myself to my sur-
roundings, and I try to describe
them. Then I move on to other
writing, poetry or whatever.
It’s also when I do my reading.
I’m a voracious reader.” She is
currently working on a play
that examines old age, with an
element dealing with assisted
suicide. She is also writing
performance-oriented poetry
based on her own experiences.
Her history in the area
goes back decades. She emi-
grated to Canada about 33
years ago, and she and her hus-
band, leff Braunstein, had a
cottage on Little Lake Joseph
in the 1970s. After they sold
it, Maja began to miss Musko-
ka, so they bought the property
they currently have.
Of course, working in the-
atre means you can’t live in
isolation, and Maja periodical-
ly has to leave Bala, such as
during the recent Calgary pro-
duction, or when she teaches at
the University of Toronto two
days a week.
She thrives on the collabo-
rative aspect of theatre work,
and always strives to improve
on what she has done, always
pushing for excellence. “I’m
very hard on myself,” she says.
“I expect a lot from myself,
and I expect a lot from people
when I work with them.”
But hand in hand with the
challenge of pushing for
excellence, is the satisfaction
when that hard work pays off.
What she finds most reward-
ing, she says, is “when a group
of people come together to
create somelhing, and the
audience sees that and is
inspired by it.”
She stresses how impor-
tant cooperation is in her pro-
fession, saying, “It’s a bit like
crossing over the North Pole
— you depend so much on one
another.” Anything less than
total commitment may mean
not getting as far as you need
to.
It’s a lesson that isn’t lost
on those around her. “My two
children, they are both adults,
have gone into theatre as well.
I’m very proud of that,” she
says.
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