An uproariously funny and sharply inquisitive new play from one of
Canada's leading Indigenous playwrights, Sir John A: Acts of a
Gentrified Ojibway Rebellion explores the possibility of reconciliation
between Peoples and urgently questions past and contemporary forms of
Canadian colonialism. Taylor's twenty-seventh play, Sir John A's
characters include Canada's infamous first Prime Minister, red-nosed and
pompous, full of patriarchal contempt for those "strange and perplexing
Indians," and his contemporary accusers: two Ojibway men and a
soul-searching white woman.
Bobby Rabbit, Sir John A's irked, Anishinaabe main character, in a fit
of anger and revenge, convinces his friend Hugh to accompany him on a
"sojourn of justice" to dig up Sir John A. Macdonald's bones and hold
them for ransom. Decades before, a medicine pouch belonging to Bobby's
grandfather was taken away by the staff of the residential school where
he was detained. The precious object was sent to a British Museum
exhibition room for conservation - and now Bobby wants it repatriated.
Along the way the pair pick up Anya, a young, bright, and opinionated
woman fleeing a bad breakup, with conflicting ideas about Sir John A's
place in Canadian history. Not to be left out of the argument, Canada's
first Prime Minister, broadcasting live from nineteenth-century Ottawa,
shows up with opinions of his own.
Sir John A: Acts of a Gentrified Ojibway Rebellion is a powerful
satire, a creative debate about the past violences of colonial racism
and the as yet untested potentiality of restoring harmony between
Peoples in Canada. A contemporary classic by Taylor!
