Revolution Night in Canada: Hockey and Theatre in Tomson Highway’s Dry Lips Oughta Move to Kapuskasing

This article reconsiders the place of hockey within Tomson Highway’s play Dry Lips Oughta Move to Kapuskasing , ultimately arguing that the re-evaluative, adaptive, and transformative power enacted at the textual level when the Cree/Anishnaabe women of Wasaychigan Hill take up a Western, male sport...

Full description

Bibliographic Details
Main Authors: Langston, Jessica, Chaulk, Mike
Format: Article in Journal/Newspaper
Language:English
Published: Centre for Drama, Theatre and Performance Studies, University of Toronto 2014
Subjects:
Online Access:https://journals.lib.unb.ca/index.php/TRIC/article/view/21957
Description
Summary:This article reconsiders the place of hockey within Tomson Highway’s play Dry Lips Oughta Move to Kapuskasing , ultimately arguing that the re-evaluative, adaptive, and transformative power enacted at the textual level when the Cree/Anishnaabe women of Wasaychigan Hill take up a Western, male sport mirrors the power reclaimed through the performance of the play itself. Moreover, as a sport that has been adopted and adapted by First Nations communities, hockey provides an ideal reflection of what Highway is doing with Euro-Canadian dramatic conventions, on a micro-scale, and with colonial traditions and powers, on a macro-scale. Just as the female hockey players force spectators to reconsider what hockey means, so too does Highway force his audience to reconsider what constitutes theatre, and, in so doing, reflect on how they distinguish between First Nations and European culture. Dans cet article, Langston et Chaulk repensent la place qu’occupe le hockey dans la pièce Dry Lips Oughta Move to Kapuskasing de Tomson Highway. Ces derniers font valoir, en fin d’analyse, que le pouvoir de réévaluation, d’adaptation et de transformation, représenté sur le plan textuel par l’appropriation que font les femmes cri/anishnaabe de Wasaychigan Hill d’un sport occidental et masculin, reflète le pouvoir de réappropriation que constitue la performance de la pièce. Puisque ce sport a été adopté et adapté par les communautés des Premières Nations, le hockey est un reflet idéal de ce que fait Highway à micro-échelle aux conventions théâtrales euro-canadiennes et, à macro-échelle, aux traditions et aux pouvoirs coloniaux. À l’instar de ces joueuses de hockey qui poussent le spectateur à repenser ce que signifie le hockey, Highway oblige son public à repenser ce qu’est le théâtre et, par conséquent, ce qui distingue la culture des Premières Nations et la culture européenne.