Summary
Zhaboonigan tries to tie her shoelaces, but becomes frustrated and screams. She then bites her hand, hurting herself, and Veronique and Marie-Adele try to calm her down. In an effort to calm her down, Marie-Adele names all of her children for Zhaboonigan, who counts them, and giggles. Veronique delivers a monologue about how she gets sick of the reserve, since people make fun of her and her second husband, Pierre, for not having any children. She says that she was the only person who would take Zhaboonigan in after her parents died in a car crash in 1964. She then talks about how she wants a new stove, but Pierre spends all of their money on alcohol.
Veronique says that Zhaboonigan wanted to go for a swim, as Marie-Adele throws a pebble at the nearby seagull. Continuing with her monologue, Veronique says that she saw Gazelle Nataways at Big Joey's shack that morning, and Big Joey told her that "THE BIGGEST BINGO IN THE WORLD" is coming to Toronto. Veronique and Marie-Adele strategize about how to figure out if the rumor is true, with Marie-Adele suggesting they take Eugene's van. Veronique tells Zhaboonigan to go out of earshot, and tells Marie-Adele that her younger sister, Emily Dictionary, was seen coming out of Big Joey's house recently.
Marie-Adele does not care to hear this gossip, and they are interrupted by the entrance of Annie Cook, as Zhaboonigan asks Marie-Adele about her cancer, before running away giggling. Annie calls into the house for someone named Simon, but Marie-Adele tells her he is in Espanola with Eugene. Annie tells Veronique that Marie-Adele is expecting a letter from her doctor soon, and they begin gossiping about the big bingo event. Marie-Adele wants to go ask Gazelle Nataways, but thinks Veronique is too afraid of Gazelle.
Suddenly, they realize that Zhaboonigan is gone and Veronique begins calling for her. They go off to the store, and Nanabush, in the guise of a seagull, follows, mimicking their movements. The stage direction reads, "The three women appear each in her own spot of light at widely divergent points on the stage area." Annie delivers a monologue about winning the BIGGEST BINGO IN THE WORLD. She says that she will buy all of Patsy Cline's records with the winnings and go to taverns and nightclubs, and she will bring her daughter Ellen and Ellen's white boyfriend. She dreams of becoming a singer for Fritz the Katz.
Then, Marie-Adele speaks about how when she wins the bingo, she will buy an island in the North Channel and live there with Eugene and her 12 sons and 2 daughters. Veronique says that when she wins bingo, she will buy a big new stove, and cook for all the children on the reserve and adopt all of Marie-Adele's children. "And Pierre St. Pierre can drink himself to death for all I care. Because I'll be the best cook on all of Manitoulin Island!" She wants to become a great cook, travel to Paris, and write a cookbook.
The scene shifts to the store, where Annie, Marie-Adele, Veronique, and Zhaboonigan have all traveled. Emily Dictionary comes on with a bag of flour, and Highway describes her as "one tough lady, wearing cowboy boots, tight blue jeans, a black leather jacket" and with a black eye. Emily asks Zhaboonigan what she's doing hanging out with these "dizzy dames." Emily wants to know if Gazelle is going away to Toronto with Big Joey, and Veronique says that she saw her leaving Big Joey's place a few nights ago. Veronique tries to figure out who hit Emily, but Emily ignores her, calling to Zhaboonigan.
Veronique speaks up, annoyed that Emily called Zhaboonigan a pagan, and when she insults Emily's name, Emily throws her across the room into Pelajia, just as Pelajia is entering the store. Philomena then comes on and goes straight to the bathroom. Annie warns Pelajia not to get on the wrong side of Veronique, who is liable to spread rumors about her if crossed.
Annie tells Emily that Veronique is mad at her for not telling her about what happened at Big Joey's, and that she is jealous of Gazelle for winning bingo. She also says that Veronique thinks Emily is the only woman brave enough to stand up to Gazelle.
As the women begin to fight, Philomena peeks her head out of the bathroom and tells Emily that she has no right to be so haughty after being away from the reserve for so many years. Pelajia raises her hammer to hit Veronique, and "a full-scale riot breaks out, during which the women throw every conceivable insult at each other." All of the women yell at each other, angrily.
Analysis
A great deal of the story revolves around each of the characters' sense of yearning. They all dream of the world becoming easier for themselves, and this is represented primarily by the promise of winning at bingo. Each of the characters holds out hope that bingo winnings will be the thing to pull them out of their respective financial slumps and help them live the life they want to live. Veronique tells Marie-Adele that she heard a rumor that the biggest bingo is coming to Toronto, and they marvel at the possibilities that that entails. The characters' happiness is completely dependent on their ability to win at a game of chance, which represents the ways that they are at the whim of an economic system that is completely out of their control.
In spite of their gossip and their betrayals of one another, the women all maintain a strong bond. Marie-Adele stole her sister Annie's husband from her, but there is no clear sign of animosity between them. Additionally, Marie-Adele's illness is not a major topic of conversation, in spite of the fact that her life is at stake. Throughout their interactions in the first and beginning of this section of the play, the characters remain discreet and subtle, revealing details of their personal lives and emotional responses slowly and intentionally.
The play is not a realistic play, as evidenced by the introduction of the mythical character Nanabush who appears in the guise of a seagull, and the various moments that characters deliver monologues that are not directly aimed at fellow characters, but at the audience. For instance, in this section, Nanabush follows the women to the store and mimics their hand and mouth movements. This kind of display is impossible to imagine a real seagull doing, so the reader must envision a different kind of theatrical space, in which the seagull is some kind of stage representation of a seagull. Then, the stage directions tell us that the women appear in different spots of light around the stage, and each deliver different monologues about what they want. Here, Highway uses a theatrical tableau to reveal the subjective feelings and desires of his characters.
In spite of some of the dark undertones in the plot, the play is primarily a comedy. Often, the characters have absurd relationships to one another, defined by the silliness and warmth of intimacy. Even in moments when a darker subtext is revealed, it often comes out in an absurd way. For instance, Veronique's husband is an alcoholic, but rather than bemoan this fact as a tragedy, Veronique uses it as fodder for a joke about her own desires and dreams. In her monologue about what she would do with the winnings from THE BIGGEST BINGO IN THE WORLD, she tells the audience, "...Pierre St. Pierre can drink himself to death for all I care. Because I'll be the best cook on all of Manitoulin Island!"
Even the fighting and violence, while intense, is humorous. When a "full-scale riot" breaks out at the store, Highway writes individual monologues for each of the women, detailing their gripes with one another. He stages a huge brawl, with verbal and physical assaults being flung in a huge chaotic cacophony. This violence is so exaggerated and hateful as to become absurd; while it tells us about the women's resentments of one another, it also tells us about the intensity of the social entanglements within the reserve at large.
