Young Icelanders, eager to break free from the limitations of their own traditions, surrender themselves to the allure of American popular culture. They learn English from Hollywood movies, and the young women style themselves after screen goddesses. They revere, and try to emulate, the music: swing, blues, and pop. When American forces actually arrive in the community, the jazzy ease of the US soldiers helps to trigger a sometimes exhilarating, sometimes painful clash between imagining and reality. Midnight Sun's world of unending light, often tender and liberating, can also cast long, darkening shadows.

An Iceland-born Canadian, Maja Ardal was schooled in Scotland. She is a playwright, performer, theatre instructor, the former artistic director of Young Peopleâ??s Theatre, and a core member of Contrary Company. She wrote Midnight Sun, produced by Tarragon Theatre and the National Arts Centre, and published by Playwrights Canada Press. Over her thirty-seven-year career she has directed at the Shaw Festival, the Grand Theatre, and Alberta Theatre Projects among others. For her illustrious career, Maja was the recipient of the 2002 George Luscombe Award for Mentorship in the Theatre. Maja is playwright-in-residence at Nightwood Theatre, and has written The Cure for Everything, a sequel to You Fancy Yourself.

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