The Rez Sisters
The Rez Sisters is a two-act play by Cree Canadian writer Tomson Highway, first performed on November 26, 1986, by Act IV Theatre Company and Native Earth Performing Arts.

"The Rez Sisters" is partially inspired by Michel Tremblay's play "Les Belles-soeurs," as it focuses on the hopes and dreams of a group of seven women on the Wasaychigan Hill Indian reserve. While Highway's treatment of his women characters is sympathetic and perhaps gentler than Tremblay's, their portrayal can only be described as gritty and grim realism.

"The Rez Sisters" is the first of an unfinished cycle of seven plays the playwright refers to as his Rez Septology, which also includes 1989's 'flip side' play "Dry Lips Oughta Move to Kapuskasing", originally entitled "The Rez Brothers".

"The Rez Sisters" features an ensemble cast of seven women dreaming of winning, and working toward raising enough money to attend, "The Biggest Bingo in the World," and one male actor/dancer in the role of Nanabush (originally played by the playwright's brother René Highway). The play melds the sometimes dark realities of life on a First Nation reserve with humour and elements of Aboriginal spirituality. It features excerpts of dialogue in the Cree and Ojibway languages.

In 2010, Highway also staged "Iskooniguni Iskweewuk", a Cree language version of the play.
Q117191
Cree
Concept
Q3531436
Tomson Highway
PER
Q6980009
Native Earth Performing Arts
ORG
Q560434
Michel Tremblay
PER
Q3230989
Les Belles-soeurs
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Q155239
Indian reserve
Concept
Q5309534
Dry Lips Oughta Move to Kapuskasing
ORG
Q833857
Nanabush
MISC
Q3933104
René Highway
PER
Q33390
Cree language
Concept
Q7760599
The Rez Sisters
ORG
Q7760599
The Rez Sisters
ORG
Q7760599
The Rez Sisters
ORG
Q7760599
The Rez Sisters
ORG
1986-11-26T00:00:00Z^^http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema#dateTime
November 26, 1986
DATE
1989-01-01T00:00:00Z^^http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema#dateTime
1989
DATE
2010-01-01T00:00:00Z^^http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema#dateTime
2010
DATE
author
date of first performance
follows
ethnic group
notable work
notable work
author