Summary
As Marie-Adele grabs Veronique's throat, everyone freezes, and a light comes up on Zhaboonigan, who ran out of the store in fear. She delivers a monologue about how she was sexually assaulted by two white boys, suggesting that they put a screwdriver inside her. She says it was quite bloody and the boys left her in a bush, before revealing that her name Zhaboonigan means "needle," or "going-through-thing." As she delivers this monologue, Nanabush, the seagull, "goes through agonizing contortions."
The lights go back up on the store, as Marie-Adele accuses Veronique of adopting Zhaboonigan so that she can collect her disability check. With that, Annie, Marie-Adele, and Emily all push Veronique until she is almost crying. As Marie-Adele goes to punch Veronique, she becomes overwhelmed by fatigue because of her illness.
Philomena comes out and tells Emily that her toilet will not flush, as the other women run to Marie-Adele's side. As Marie-Adele screams at everyone for trying to help her, Annie goes offstage to the back part of the store where the post office is. Philomena asks Emily who gave her a black eye, and Veronique says that it was Big Joey. Emily talks about the fact that she walked out on Henry Dadzinanare, her former lover, as well as her kids, one night when he threatened her with an axe.
"And she took the bus to San Francisco," Annie yells from offstage. Emily lists all of her sisters from the motorcycle gang she joined, then tells the girls that the black eye came from a fight that broke out between her, Big Joey, and Gazelle. The punch was intended for Gazelle. Veronique leaves the stage abruptly to look for Zhaboonigan.
Annie comes back in with her parcel and two letters. There's a Patsy Cline record in the parcel, and she hands the other envelope to Marie-Adele. Annie then reads her letter from her daughter, which mentions THE BIGGEST BINGO IN THE WORLD, with a jackpot of $500,000, that is happening in Toronto on September 8th.
Everyone becomes incredibly excited about the bingo, while Marie-Adele looks at her letter, which says her tests will take place in Toronto on September 10th, two days after the bingo. "I wanna go," says Marie-Adele about the bingo. Emily is skeptical about how they are going to get to Toronto, but Veronique suggests that they can pool their money and rent a car. When Emily insults Philomena, they begin to wrestle, but Pelajia hits the counter with her hammer to get everyone's attention.
Veronique signals to the other women that Pelajia has money, and they surround her as she makes a speech. Pelajia says that they should go to the Band Council to ask for a loan so that they can go to the bingo. "I know how to handle that tired old chief. He and I have been arguing about paved roads for years now. I'll tell him we'll build paved roads all over the reserve with our prize money. I'll tell him the people will stop drinking themselves to death because they'll have paved roads to walk on. I'll tell him there'll be more jobs because the people will have paved roads to drive to work on." She then says that if the chief still says no, she will hit him in the head with her hammer and they will steal the money.
The women march off to the office, led by Pelajia. Nanabush follows them, and the "invisible" chief speaks to them, clearly refusing their request. A stage direction reads, "Pelajia raises her hammer to hit the 'invisble' chief, Nanabush shrugs a 'don't ask me, I don't know,' Emily fingers a 'fuck you, man.' Blackout."
Act 2. The women hold a meeting in Pelajia's basement, with some women drinking tea and Emily and Annie drinking beer. Emily bangs Pelajia's hammer throughout the meeting. Annie tells the group that it takes four hours to get to Toronto, but Philomena thinks it's more like eight. Marie-Adele, on the other hand, says that Eugene drove there in six. On the question of how to get there, Annie thinks they ought to borrow Big Joey's van, but they cannot agree about when to leave. They decide that Veronique will cook, and that everyone can contribute $20 a person. They also try and estimate gas money, and figure they have 10 days to find it.
Analysis
This section begins with a rather startling revelation from Zhaboonigan. Having stepped away from the violent outbursts of the other women, she tells the audience that she was sexually assaulted by two white boys with a screwdriver in the past. Because of her mental disability, Zhaboonigan does not relate information in the typical fashion and delivers this disturbing news in a meandering, almost musical monologue. As she delivers this speech, Nanabush, in the form of a seagull, "goes through agonizing contortions," reflecting the horror of what Zhaboonigan is relating.
There is a push and pull between ferocity and vulnerability in the play. For example, just as Marie-Adele is about to punch a weeping Veronique in the face, having already gotten ahold of her neck, she becomes incredibly weak, doubled over from her illness. The moment of violence is heightened and horrifying—how could she possibly punch her friend in the face?—but just as quickly as she winds up for the punch, Marie-Adele is overwhelmed with exhaustion and cannot hit her friend, becoming a vulnerable shell of herself. Each of the women has something inside them, psychological or physical, that renders them vulnerable and afraid, in spite of their extremely aggressive public-facing personas.
All of the personal dramas and conflicts that divided the women up until this point are diffused by the news from Annie's daughter about THE BIGGEST BINGO IN THE WORLD. As soon as Annie reads the letter, the women erupt into excitement, talking about the promise that the bingo holds, the fact that they might be able to purchase some of their dream items. The promise of economic autonomy and prosperity removes all of the interpersonal conflicts that have overwhelmed them, and they can share in a group vision of deliverance and wealth.
The image of wealth and abundance that the women imagine for themselves and the tribe is not defined only by personal wealth, as represented by the speech that Pelajia makes. She says that she will tell the chief that, with the bingo winnings, they will build paved roads, which will sustain and raise up the community from poverty. In an impassioned monologue, she describes that the paved roads will take away all of the alcohol abuse in the community, that it will create more jobs for members of the community, that it will bring the spirit of Nanabush back to the community and redistribute money to all of the tribe members. In this, we see that the promise of bingo is not simply some empty promise of personal accumulation, but a dream of a better life for the entire tribe.
The road to the bingo game is not a simple one, as the women of the tribe continually fight about how they will get there and how they will accumulate the money they require for the game itself and for provisions along the way. Nearly every group scene is a chaotic one, and this moment of planning is no exception. Each of the women disagrees about the prices of things, about what they should drive, where they should stay, and who should be in charge of particular things. While they are united in their vision of attending the bingo, they are hardly united in the journey itself.
