Diversionary Theatre

November 21, 2023
6:30PM

4545 Park Blvd #101,
San Diego, CA 92116

The Rez Sisters

by Tomson Highway

This play explores the hopes, dreams and difficulties of a group of seven Indigenous women. One yearns for a singing career; another for a white porcelain toilet. One grieves for her lover, killed in a motorcycle accident; another harbours the memory of a horrific sexual assault. But one dream they hold in common is that of winning “the biggest bingo in the world” – and one day, accompanied by the transformative spirit guide Nanabush, they leave their Manitoulin Island reserve and set out for Toronto to do just that. Ribald, harrowing and mystical, this seminal work of Indigenous drama celebrates the spirit of resilience and the powerful beauty these women bring to the tough world in which they live.

Tomson Highway (Cree) is an Indigenous, Two-Spirit, Canadian playwright, novelist, children’s author and musician. He is best known for his plays The Rez Sisters and Dry Lips Oughta Move to Kapuskasing, both of which won the Dora Mavor Moore Award for Outstanding New Play and the Floyd S. Chalmers Award. Highway also published a novel, Kiss of the Fur Queen (1998), which is based on the events that led to his brother René Highway’s death of AIDS. He wrote the libretto for the first Cree language opera, The Journey or Pimooteewin.

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