Play reflects Canada's complex history with Sir John A. Macdonald's legacy
Latest headlines give new heft to Blyth Festival production of Drew Hayden Taylor play
Just about the time a protective plywood box will be pulled away from the statue of Sir John A. Macdonald at Queen's Park in Toronto, a comedy about the complex history of Canada's first prime minister will be hitting the stage in southwestern Ontario.
Ojibway writer Drew Hayden Taylor's play Sir John A: Acts of a Gentrified Ojibway Rebellion will begin its summer run at the Blyth Festival on June 18.
It tells the fictional story of an Anishnawbe man who sets off on a "sojourn of justice" to the site of Macdonald's grave. The man goes on a mission to dig up Macdonald's bones so he can swap them for a medicine pouch stolen from his grandfather when he entered a residential school decades earlier.
The play was first commissioned by the National Arts Centre in Ottawa back in 2017. Since then, Macdonald's legacy has continued to face new scrutiny, with his statue pulled to the ground or splattered with paint in a handful of different cities.
Along with his pivotal role in Canadian confederation and building a national railway, Macdonald is also considered an architect of the country's residential school system, in which Indigenous children were taken from their families in an effort to assimilate them.
The statue at Queen's Park was placed behind protective hoarding in 2020 as a wave of protests across the country took aim at Macdonald over his role in the residential school system. That hoarding is set to come down this summer.
Taylor said in writing the script, his intent was to use humour as a lens to examine the complex and often very painful history of the Indigenous experience in Canada. He's happy to see the play getting a new audience — in a new context — as Canada continues to struggle with how to acknowledge Macdonald's role in the country's history while also respecting the damage his policies did to Indigenous people.
"People and stories work and operate in a level of grey," said Taylor in an interview this week with CBC News. "There's very few things in this world that are black and white, and I like operating in the grey."
Taylor said Indigenous humour, something he's written about often, can sometimes poke fun at dark topics.
"The thing about Indigenous humour is that it's reflecting the world around it," he said. "Frequently, it has elements of colonization, racism, and oppression in the humour."
Bobby Rabbit, the play's main character, struggles with his mission at times. He has to deal with his friend Hugh, who is tricked into coming along and is more focused on his dreams of becoming a rock star. Also joining the journey is Anya, who isn't afraid to clash with Rabbit over her views of Macdonald.
Smart, funny script
The Blyth Festival production will be directed by Vinetta Strombergs, who has staged Taylor's plays before.
She said the play will have audiences thinking, especially in light of recent headlines.
"I think he's a terrific storyteller," said Strombergs of Taylor. "He is very smart, and he is very funny."
Macdonald himself is a character in the play. He appears alone on stage in a series of time-warp monologues about the challenges he's grappling with while in office. Among them is a struggle to hold off assimilation at the hands of Canada's much larger southern neighbour, something that may sound familiar to a Canadian audience in 2025.
Even Macdonald's penchant for boozing is reflected in the script.
"I say it's two shows in one," said Strombergs. "You're hearing John A pontificate about his opinions and attitudes, which might be quite controversial but also funny, while he gets drunker and drunker."
Taylor hopes the play stirs up new discussion about Canada's origin story and its complicated history with Indigenous people.
"We're talking about the birth of a nation, right? And with all births, there is pain and discovery," he said.
Sir John A: Acts of a Gentrified Ojibway Rebellion starts June 18 and runs to Aug. 3 at Blyth Theatre.
You can read more about the play and get ticket information here.
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