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alterNatives
alterNatives
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Author: Drew Hayden Taylor Publisher: Talonbooks Format: Softcover # of Pages: 144 Pub. Date: 2000 ISBN-10: 0889224285 ISBN-13: 9780889224285
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About the Play:
A very liberal contemporary couple — Angel, an urban Native science fiction writer, and Colleen, a non-practising Jewish intellectual who teaches Native literature — hosts a dinner party. The guests at this little sitcom soirée are couples that represent what by now have become the clichéd extremes of both societies: Angel's former radical Native activist buddies and Colleen's environmentally concerned vegetarian / veterinarian friends. The menu is, of course, the hosts' respectful attempt at shorthand for the irreconcilable cultural differences about to come to a head during the evening: moose roast and vegetarian lasagna.
Like all of Drew Hayden Taylor's work, alterNatives manages to say things about Whites and Indians that one is not supposed to talk about — it digs up the carefully buried, raw and pulsing nerve-endings of the unspeakable and exposes them to the hot bright lights of the stage. That he does so with a humour that the politically correct among his audiences continue to miss entirely beneath the sound and fury of their own self-righteous indignation is a measure of his immense talent as a dramatist. In the end, the play is not about cultural differences at all, but instead constitutes a full frontal attack on the personal qualities the sitcom holds most dear and pushes hardest at its audiences: Taylor actually has the temerity to suggest that neither attitude nor sincerity are enough to address basic human issues, no matter which side of the cultural fence the characters are on. And that's hard for the pushers of what is considered a globally enlightened culture to take.
Cast: 3 women, 3 men
What people say:
"Drew Hayden Taylor is Canada's leading Native dramatist, alterNATIVES is in many ways his most controversial play… created a deft piece of Canadian social satire that should generate heated discussions." — David E. Kemp, CBRA 2000 – Literature and Language
About the Playwright:
Drew Hayden Taylor is an Ojibway from the Curve Lake First Nations in Ontario. A writer of many disciplines, he has produced work for television, movies, theatre, short stories, commentaries, and essays. He has also taught workshops in scriptwriting and playwriting for Native people and visible minorities. |
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