ABORIGINAL YOUTH TACKLE METH

April's limbs twist and jolt as she claws at her skin through an
oversized stained gray sweatshirt. Her babbling reveals disconnected
thoughts: Joy over her baby daughter darkens into a psychotic rant
about her ex who abandoned her and their daughter.

She cries out and pulls her hair, as sanity slips away.

This moment is one of many in a theatrical production called Crystal
Clear that rendered the audience at the Victoria Native Friendship
Centre wide-eyed with horror.

In the production, the lives of four aboriginal youth spin out of
control in a disastrous crystal methamphetamine binge.

In the aftermath, April is turned over to the psychiatric ward, her
baby taken to a foster home, her older brother jailed and her younger
brother dead of an overdose.

Tala Tootoosis, the 23-year-old Plains Cree/Assiniboine who played
April, knows the disastrous affects of the drug first hand.

She, along with five others in the production's nine-member cast, is a
former crystal meth addict.

For her, the show is not only about raising awareness about the drug,
but also about confronting her demons.

When the group began rehearsing in February, she felt uncomfortable
acting like she was high and holding a meth pipe again.

"I cried a lot," she said.

The most emotional point in the play, for her, is when April's older
brother is guided away from a life of meth by the spirit of his dead
mother.

"My mom helped my recovery," said the young women, who, like her
character April, is a mother of one.

After four months of performances, it's much easier for Tootoosis to
speak openly about the drug that once consumed her life.

"Now I know where I stand with it," she said. "I want to be clean."

Supporting actress Jasmine Henderson, 22, of Montreal Lake First
Nation, explained in a talk-back session after the show that the
production's events are not farfetched.

"What you just saw is just like what happens in many households... We
could've shown you even worse," she said.

The show, performed twice last Friday by a troupe of at-risk
Saskatchewan youths, concluded their two-month tour across Western
Canada. The group of nine was chosen among 75 applicants to be part of
the Saskatchewan Native Theatre Company's 2006 Circle of Voices group.
Renowned Plains Cree playwright Dawn Dumont based the script on the
group's experiences with the drug.

When Dumont returned to Saskatchewan from her current home in New York
City to write the play with the COV participants, she was impressed by
the group's intelligence, honesty and humour. "Without their help,
this play could not have been written," she wrote.

While the play's main focus was meth, the script also highlighted the
stereotypes faced by aboriginal youth and depicted their culture and
spirituality as an overwhelmingly positive influence - an influence
powerful enough to boost them from the cycle of addiction.

This rings true in real life, said Henderson.

"For us, cultural aspects (or) whatever higher power you believe in
can help get you through addiction," she said. "I feel emotional every
time I do this play... I love it."

The power of the 45-minute play wasn't lost on its audience.

A former meth addict in the audience called the show "powerful."

"There needs to be more shows like this," he said. "It's the hardest
thing to get off... The pain - you get so used to it, it makes you sick."

Saanich police school liaison Cst. Shannon Lance congratulated the
troupe, telling them she would love for them to return to Victoria to
perform at Saanich's middle and high schools.