Two University of Windsor drama students are raising awareness about teen suicide with the production of their original theatrical play. Their inspiration: Nadia Kajouji.
Kajouji, who was a first-year Carleton student, jumped into the Rideau River in 2008, after being urged to commit suicide by William Melchert-Dinkel, a man posing as a female nurse in an Internet chat room.
Christina Bryson, 22, and Margaret Evraire, 21, were inspired to script the play, called White Noise in memory of Kajouji’s final moments, before taking her own life.
For the most part, the play revolves around the idea of dangerous strangers on the Internet and vulnerable teenagers.
“We tried to focus a little bit less on doing a biography and more on the issues around her case,” Evraire said. “The idea [was] of Internet predators and responsibility for your actions on the Internet as well as your actions in real life.”
Evraire said the anonymity of the Internet leads to a false sense of security and disguises online predators.
“We created sort of a real world situation,” Bryson said. “We used a voiceover of a woman’s voice to represent their online chats. The disembodied anonymity, representing that [Kajouji] thought she was talking to a young woman.”
Although Bryson and Evraire didn't know Kajouji personally, Bryson said she’s a close friend of someone who knew Kajouji well.
Their play, White Noise, also included elements of the Inuit folk story of the Qallupilluit, creatures that draw children into the water under the ice. Evaire and Bryson said this alludes to Kajouji “falling through the ice” when she drowned herself.
The play ran Oct. 15-16. There were no formal reviews conducted, but Evraire and Bryson said the general response has been positive.
The students said they were approached by a professor of the school of drama and education to showcase the play at high schools.
“It’s not a finished product," Bryson said. "We want to keep working on it, especially to make it into a travelable show to bring to high schools. We want to bring it to some high schools since it’s a really universal topic at this point. We hope it can make kids think about what they’re doing online and where they look for help.”
“The issue of teen suicide needs to be brought up in high schools and this is an interesting way to do it,” Evraire concluded.
