The Rez Sisters

The Rez Sisters by Tomson Highway is a two-act play that was first performed in 1986 at the Native Canadian Centre of Toronto. After being translated into French by Jocelyne Beaulieu, “Les Reines de la réserve” premiered by Théâtre Populaire du Québec in 1993. A version of the play in the Cree language was performed in 2010, and Canadian performances with Indigenous actors have been staged in the 2020s. Highway’s play re-envisions the 1965 play Les Belles-soeurs (The Sisters-in-Law) by Canadian playwright Michel Tremblay from an Indigenous perspective. The Rez Sisters won several awards, including the Dora Mavor Moore Award for Outstanding New Play and the Floyd S. Chalmers Canadian Play Award. The Rez Sisters is considered the first play in Highway’s Rez Septology, an unfinished seven-play cycle. Please be advised that this play contains discussion of sexual assault and domestic violence.

Plot Summary

Highway’s play focuses on seven sisters living on the Wasaychigan Hill Indian Reserve, a fictional reservation for members of the Cree and Ojibway tribes in Canada. The play also features a male trickster spirit, Nanabush. Act I begins on Pelajia Patchnose’s roof. Her sister, Philomena Moosetail, helps her work and they gossip about other people on Wasy, the reservation. They also discuss the lack of paved roads and other poor working conditions. Pelajia dreams of escaping to Toronto where her sons live. Philomena tears her skirt and offers other moments of comedy in the scene. Annie Cook, Philomena and Pelajia’s half-sister, arrives. They all love playing bingo, but the pots in Wasy keep decreasing in size. Annie hurries to the post office in the Wasy general store to pick up a package.

Annie’s sister Marie-Adele Starblanket throws rocks at a seagull in her yard. The seagull is Nanabush, the trickster in disguise, who attempts to get Marie-Adele to follow him to heaven. Marie-Adele refuses. Marie-Adele is married to Eugene, who was previously in a relationship with Annie. Marie-Adele worries that her and Eugene’s children will be placed in foster care after she dies because of Eugene’s issues with alcohol. Veronique St. Pierre (Marie-Adele’s sister-in-law) and Veronique’s adopted daughter Zhaboonigan Peterson, who has an intellectual disability, stop by the yard.

Zhaboonigan brings up Marie-Adele’s cancer awkwardly. Veronique claims to be concerned about who will care for Marie-Adele’s fourteen children. They gossip about a woman on the reservation getting a car, and about a giant bingo game coming to Toronto. Annie arrives and Veronique tells her about the big game. The three women walk to the general store and talk about how they would spend their bingo game winnings.

At the general store, Annie, Veronique, and Marie-Adele group run into Emily Dictionary (Annie and Marie-Adele’s sister, and sister-in-law of Veronique). Emily’s black eye begins an argument which turns into a riot. Outside the general store, Zhaboonigan tells Nanabush about how a group of white boys sexually assaulted her. Marie-Adele collapses from her illness, which ends the fight. Emily discusses the domestic violence she experienced from her ex-husband and how she got her black eye from a recent lover. Annie receives a letter that confirms the rumor about the Toronto bingo game.

In Act II, the sisters hold a meeting to discuss how they will fund a trip to Toronto. They run a bake sale, babysit, wash clothes, set up a garage sale and a bottle drive, and more. After Annie and Emily raise the last few hundred dollars by singing at an Inn, the sisters drive Eugene’s van to Toronto. During their journey to Toronto, the women discuss their hopes and their pasts. Philomena reveals that she had to give up a child for adoption and wants to find the child. Annie discusses dating a Jewish country singer. Emily confesses that she is bisexual, and lost her female lover in a motorcycle accident in California, which prompted her to return to the reservation. A flat tire forces the sisters to pause in their journey and get out of the van. Nanabush, disguised as a nighthawk, attacks Marie-Adele. She has an emotional breakdown about her approaching death. Zhaboonigan also sees Nanabush and reacts emotionally. The other sisters complete the tire change, and get everyone back into the van. Emily, instead of Annie, drives as they resume their trip toward Toronto.

The sisters arrive at the bingo game, where the Bingo Master is Nanabush in disguise. During the game, most of the women have terrible luck, but Philomena wins a few hundred dollars. The sisters rush the stage, grab the bingo machine, and carry it out of the theater. Nanabush, disguised as the Bingo Master, dances with Marie-Adele. Then he transforms into a nighthawk that guides her into the spirit world. This moment symbolically represents her death.

Back on the reservation, the remaining sisters sing a funeral song for Marie-Adele. After the funeral scene, Emily tells Zhaboonigan that she is pregnant. Annie visits them at the general store, inviting Emily to see her sing with her boyfriend. Annie then goes to Marie-Adele’s house, where Veronique is taking care of Marie-Adele’s children. They argue over Annie singing at a bar. Annie then makes her way to Pelajia’s house. Pelajia and Philomena are working on the roof again, and they gossip, joke, and talk about bingo. After everyone else leaves, Pelajia continues to hammer away, with Nanabush, unseen in the background, dancing to the beat of her hammer.