The Rez Sisters: A Play in Two Acts [Paperback]

Tomson Highway (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: December 15, 1992

Winner of the Dora Mavor Moore Award for Best New Play

Nominated for the Governor General's Award

This award-winning play by Native playwright Tomson Highway is a powerful and moving portrayal of seven women from a reserve attempting to beat the odds by winning at bingo. And not just any bingo. It is THE BIGGEST BINGO IN THE WORLD and a chance to win a way out of a tortured life.

The Rez Sisters is hilarious, shocking, mystical and powerful, and clearly establishes the creative voice of Native theatre and writing in Canada today.

Editorial Reviews

Review

One of the most touching, exuberant, cleverly crafted, and utterly entrancing plays. -- The Toronto Star, 1987

About the Author

Tomson Highway is one of the most distinctive playwrights to come along in years. His plays explore the contemporary Indian in dominant white society, and the results are both exciting and challenging. Highway was born on his father's trap-line in northern Canada. His father was a trapper, fisherman, and legendary dogsled racer. Trained as a concert pianist, Tomson turned to playwriting as a way to portray the lives and times of Native people. His award-winning plays have been produced throughout the United States and Canada and around the world, and his works are studied extensively at universities everywhere. Also by Tomson Highway, Dry Lips Oughta Move to Kapuskasing (ISBN 0920079555).

Product Details

• Paperback: 118 pages
• Publisher: Fifth House Books; 1 edition (December 15, 1992)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 092007944X
• ISBN-13: 978-0920079447
• Product Dimensions: 8.5 x 5.8 x 0.4 inches
• Shipping Weight: 6.4 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 3.5 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (4 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #308,228 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

More About the Author

Discover books, learn about writers, read author blogs, and more.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

4 of 4 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Family of a different kind., December 8, 2006

By 

Abbie - See all my reviews

This review is from: The Rez Sisters: A Play in Two Acts (Paperback)

This play is a fast, easy read. It is an interesting tale of women of different ages and different life stories traveling to a bingo game: the biggest bingo game ever. Each woman is hoping to win the game for a different reason. The story of how they decide to go to the game, traveling to the game, and entering into the game is full of fighting, understanding, and camaraderie. Each woman is a special asset to the "journey," and the women truly become sisters. This is a wonderful play that depicts these women as `real' women, women you know, women you wish you didn't know, and women who are important in your life. It is humorous, interesting, complex, sad, and hopeful. This is a great read.

6 of 7 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars The Sisters from the Rez, May 2, 2000

By 

Michael Sloan - See all my reviews

This review is from: The Rez Sisters: A Play in Two Acts (Paperback)

This was a really dramatic play that expressed many issues that many people would never talk about in a book. It dealt with rape, death and solidarity among Native women. When it was assigned in my first year English class, I was not sure what to think before I read it. After I read it I found that it was one of the best plays that I have ever read and gives new insight into the Native culture in Canada.

3 of 4 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars A funny play with a taste of reality, April 1, 2000

By A Customer

This review is from: The Rez Sisters: A Play in Two Acts (Paperback)

I really enjoyed this play. It had very humourous parts, and also provided a unique insight into the Native-Canadian reserves lifestyle. The women are depicted in a very unique style, and are very funny, and life-like. While reading this play, I quite often felt as though I were playing one of the characters myself. I had to read this for school, and I am glad, because it was very touching, and also a good learning experience, learning about other cultures in Canada.