About the Play:

Winner of the 1996 Dora Mavor Moore Award for Outstanding New Play

Someday is a full-length drama by Drew Hayden Taylor. An Ojibway widow named Anne living on a reserve in central Ontario wins a lottery and sets out to find the daughter she gave up for adoption 30 years earlier. This means major adjustments for her at-home daughter, Barb, and Barb's boyfriend, Rodney. The touching, bittersweet story of a mother's long and unspoken grief.

Someday is based on the real-life tragedies suffered by many Indigenous Canadian families. Anne Wabung's daughter was taken away by children's aid workers when the girl was only a toddler. It is Christmastime 35 years later, and Anne's yearning to see her now-grown daughter is stronger than ever. When the family is finally reunited, however, the dreams of neither women are fulfilled. The setting for the play is a fictional Ojibway community, but could be any reserve in Canada, where thousands of Native children were removed from their families in what is known among Indigenous people as the "scoop-up" of the 1950s and 1960s. Someday is an entertaining, humourous, and spirited play that packs an intense emotional wallop.

Someday evolved from a piece published in The Globe and Mail as the 1990 annual Christmas story. Produced by De-ba-jeh-mu-jig Theatre Group of Manitoulin Island, Someday premiered in 1991 at Wikwemikong Reserve and toured throughout Ontario. Since then the play has been produced widely at professional theatres across Canada and in the US. Though it stands on it's own, Someday is the first play in a connective identity-politics trilogy that is followed by Only Drunks and Children Tell the Truth and concludes with 400 Kilometres. The three plays tell the story of Janice Wirth, also known as Grace, who searches for her Indigenous identity and eventually completes her journey of reunification with her family.

Cast: 2 Indigenous female, 2 Indigenous male

What people say:

"This is a fine show … thanks for Drew Hayden Taylor's writing … He can make you laugh one minute, then cry the next, and leaves you with lines and images that you will remember long after the curtain comes down. This is not just a great Native production. This is a great production. Period." — CBC

"…this play is a very tender, engaging look at two strangers learning to be sisters… witty one liners and snappy dialogue has crafted likeable, real characters… brings a satisfying sense of closure to the struggles of Barb and Janice/Grace. It is a welcome ending, one that reflects hope for the future – not only for these two sisters, but also for all the others who have yet to find their way home." — Aboriginal Voices

"This tale is reflective of real life situations and proves once again that inner strength and fortitude can help overcome our worst nightmares… could be one of Taylor's best works to date…a moving piece of work that combines realism with satire and comedy and leaves the reader (or viewer) with memories and images they won't soon forget…. Down to earth dialogue and realistic character portrayals make Only Drunks and Children Tell the Truth an outstanding read, and one that is likely to have its effect on anyone who picks it up." — Alberta Native News

About the Playwright:

Drew Hayden Taylor is an award-winning playwright, a journalist/columnist, short-story writer, novelist, television scriptwriter, and documentary film maker. An Ojibwa from the Curve Lake First Nation in central Ontario, he is widely known for his thoughtful and sharply witty observations on Aboriginal subjects and issues. He has worn many hats in his literary career, everything from performing stand-up comedy at Kennedy Center in Washington, DC, to serving as artistic director for Canada's premiere Aboriginal theatre company, Native Earth Performing Arts.