THEATRE REVIEW:
THE REZ SISTERS
12 NOV/11

JOHN COULBOURN,
QMI Agency
R: 3.5/5

Pictured: Djennie Laguerre, Michaela Washburn, Jean Yoon

TORONTO - In a world where entire decorating shows can be devoted to finding just the right shade of white, mankind’s notion of defining others by skin colour is revealed as several different kinds of ridiculous. As the races meet and mingle with increasing abandon, one can no more assume that skin tone defines race any more than a big belly defines pregnancy.

So, full credit to Factory Theatre’s Ken Gass for his refusal to define race by mere pigment in casting Factory Theatre’s revival of Tomson Highway’s THE REZ SISTERS, populating the Manitoulin Island reserve on which the play is set with a group of women whose skin tones are far more varied than the imaginations of most casting directors. His production opened Thursday on the Factory mainstage where it is slated to run through Dec. 11.

But while Gass’s production appears to fully appreciate that colour is only skin-deep and that Highway — like most great playwrights — is far more concerned with the shadings of his characters’ hearts than the shading of their skins, it still manages to fall more than a trifle short. There’s a wonderful sense of rambunctiousness, to be sure, as Gass follows the lives of the seven women at the heart of Highway’s play — tracing their big-hearted dreams and their nightmares with often raucous abandon.

For some, like Jani Lauzon’s Pelajia Patchnose, those dreams simply frame something more exciting than patching the roof of her two-room shack. For others, like Jean Yoon’s Veronique St. Pierre and Djennie Laguerre’s Annie Cook, dreams are more materialistic — a new stove or more records.

And while some, like Kyra Harper’s Philomena Moosetail and Michaela Washburn’s Emily Dictionary, who have come home to the reserve to heal, their dreams are of what they left behind. Still, for others like Cara Gee’s Zhaboonigan Peterson and Pamela Sinha’s Marie-Adele Starblanket, escaping the nightmares of past and future proves dream enough.

So it’s hardly surprising that when word comes of the world’s biggest bingo being planned in Toronto, they’re all aboard as each dreams of the magic the $500,000 grand prize might work in her life. Unfortunately, they dream without remembering the ever-present hand of the mythical Nanabush, the trickster of First Nations’ myth, played by Billy Merasty.

As usual, Highway writes characters not only large, but broad, infusing his sisterhood with a bawdy earthiness that is delightful. And, in the main, Gass captures that innocent bawdiness to perfection in a sprawling production that, thanks to Gillian Gallow’s set — and Highway’s far-flung story — has no real anchor.

But in bringing life to a story meant to underline the simple quiet courage and natural dignity of women living life in the face of sexual and spousal abuse, surrounded by poverty, substance abuse, sub-standard medical care and uncaring bureaucracy, Gass and his otherwise talented cast fail to find the emotional heart in their individual struggles. In a series of confessional soliloquies, they fail to find the stoicism imbued in these characters since birth. Meanwhile, Merasty renders his role in an almost stolid way, his gravity weighing down the shape-shifting and irreverent trickster making a spirit too much to the earth.

In the end, it’s all a bit of a toss-up, despite quality work from Harper, Lauzon, Sinha and Yoon, as well as some good collective scenes. While it offers a chance (and one that shouldn’t be missed) to revisit what has become a Canadian classic, it’s likely to leave you hoping that should you get a chance to see it again, they’ll somehow do it all just a little better.