The Rez Sisters is a play written by Aboriginal playwright Tomson Highway. 25 years ago, it gave voice to the concerns of a marginalized minority that was not represented in the arts. This year, to celebrate its 25th anniversary, Factory Theatre remounted it. For this staging, there was additional interests because of the decision to cast some non-Aboriginal actors. I attended a preview screening Saturday night.
The play opened up with a house partially sticking out of the ground. A black winding path loops around the abode, dividing the stage in half. It was clear that we are looking down at the scene when a ladder appeared and Pelajia Patchnose (Jani Lauzon) climbed up on her roof. She effected some repairs and lamented her dead-end situation on the reservation, located in Northern Ontario on Manitoulin Island, with Philomena Moosetail (Kyra Harper). Eventually the rest of the women appeared: mentally disabled Zhaboonigan Peterson (Cara Gee), excitable Annie Cook (Djennie Laguerre), stoic Marie-Adele Starblanket (Pamela Sinha), butch Emily Dictionary (Michaela Washburn), and prissy Veronique St. Pierre (Jean Yoon). They all have hard-luck stories, bickered, fought, and gossiped. Circling the scene is Nanabush (Billy Merasty), the Trickster.
The impetus for the play was the news that The Biggest Bingo In the World will take place in Toronto. Each woman envisioned a different and better life for herself with the winnings. It was then a matter of raising enough money in various activities for the trip down to Southern Ontario.
I found the play unconvincing because of the open casting. I had no problem with using non-Aboriginal actors, in this case Asian, Black, and Caucasian, but rather that most did not fully inhabit their character. As an aside, Tomson Highway has stated he did not want to keep his plays limited to only native actors. But for me, the pressing issues are whitewashing: casting of Caucasian actors in originally ethnic roles (e.g., Desperate Measures, 21, The Last Avatar) or the more insidious practice of defaulting roles to Caucasian actors with minorities being only cast in roles that call explicitly for an "ethnic" character. In other words, it makes no sense to fight over a slice when somebody else keeps the whole cake.
Natives on a reservation in the 80s has such specificity in mannerism, speech, and accent that some attempt must be made to invoke that milieu. Unfortunately, most of the women used the standard, urban voice. One had a hard time keeping out her French accent. Some contemporary mannerisms unconsciously crept in such as the distracting head-wagging "you go girl" of current times. So they seemed more like the Desperate Housewives of Scarborough. A few of the women used a rural Ontario accent, which is to be applauded, but since not everyone did so, it made the mix on stage that much more surreal.
Ultimately, since I could not convincingly immerse myself because of these technical hiccups, the women never became real to me. So I did not care about their situation which seemed soap opera-ish, maudlin, and even exploitative. Without that truthful foundation, pathos became pastiche.
