ARTS & CULTURE
8 Obiter Dicta
NormaLeeDean
A riveting, thought-provoking play by Catherine Frid
michael capitano › news editor
C
atherine mentions that working with
J.D. students on the play was an amazing
experience. Holder of a law degree herself,
she felt right at home exploring issues of law
and justice with so many bright people—a perfect
collaboration.
Children on a school trip parade by me as I wait
for the conference room to open in the foyer of Black
Creek Pioneer Village. Any one of these kids could
share the same fate as the titular character of the
play I am about to hear. In fifteen minutes or so,
Catherine Frid—one of Osgoode’s artists in residence—will be performing the first reading of her
play NormaLeeDean for attendees of the Law and the
Curated Body Conference and high school students
that are part of the L.A.W.S. program.
The play—born out of her directed reading course
at Osgoode on Canadian informants and whistleblowers—is based on a true story: that of the Norma Dean
inquest concerning the suicide of a young girl at the
now defunct Kawartha Lakes School—an Ontarian
detention training centre. Even though the story is
set in the 1970s, the theme is disturbingly topical. In
2007, Ashley Smith died by self-inflicted strangulation while under suicide watch at the Grand Valley
Institution for Women. It’s hard to believe that, after
thirty years, a similar event could happen again—
especially while under video surveillance. The virtue
of art, and Catherine’s play, is the ability to show why
such breakdowns in justice occur, and the barriers
that exist in achieving justice itself.
Once inside, I spot Catherine chatting with the
organizers. Catherine—in red with her light brown
hair falling freely on her shoulders—looks eager to
start as the final preparations are made. I sense the
pre-reading jitters in the air. It’s a big deal, no doubt;
subjecting one’s work to an unknown audience for the
first time.
I walk over to introduce myself to Catherine—who
greets me with enthusiasm and then excuses herself to give the final instructions to her director and
actors. Unlike a staged play, a reading utilizes certain
conventions to help give the words shape: the director narrates the action and the actors read the lines for
multiple parts—standing up and down to enter and
exit scenes.
I take a seat in the back, behind the L.A.W.S. students. A few minutes later, Catherine sits a table away
from me. She informs me that she watches the audience, instead of the actors, so that she knows when
they’re engaged and when they’re not; it’s the only
way to be certain about which parts work and where
the first of many
revisions need to
take place.
Suffice it to say,
I was completely
riveted by the play
due to Catherine’s
framing of the subject matter and the force of her
words. Exploring both young Norma’s path through
the mental health care system, as well as the whistle-blowing that led to the inquest, NormaLeeDean
exposes how inadequate and uncompassionate treatment can lead to a needless death, as well as how the
urge to cover up disaster—instead of improving on the
failed system—can lead to injustice.
The parties implicated in Norma’s death—be it the
government or the institutions and people responsible for her treatment—al