The Dream of Bingo (Symbol)
Bingo is an incredibly important part of the play, and is as much a symbol as it is a concrete game that the characters enjoy. Bingo represents freedom, ascension, economic mobility, a better future, dreams coming true, and more for all of the women. Each of the women has a different relationship to the promise of bingo, but their dreams of what winning could mean all have to do with some kind of sense of liberation—some sense that will be one step closer to what they want. Thus, bingo becomes a symbol for the desires of the women.
The Actual Bingo (Symbol)
When the Rez Sisters actually arrive at the bingo in Toronto, the event is depicted as a kind of circus-like, fever-dream spectacular. The women create chaos on the stage, with bingo cards "flying like confetti" and a general atmosphere of jubilant chaos. At the end, The Bingo Master says "Bingo" into Marie-Adele's ear after waltzing with her. This moment does not represent her actually winning the bingo, but the moment of her death. Thus, the actual event of bingo becomes a symbolic event, representing Marie-Adele's expiration, her flight from her own body. It becomes a cathartic theatrical representation of Marie-Adele's death.
The Last Supper (Allegory)
At one point in the bingo, the women strike a pose that resembles the iconic image of Jesus' last supper. The stage direction reads, "The house lights go out. And the only lights now are on the bingo balls bouncing around in the bingo machine—an eery, surreal sort of glow—and on the seven women who are now playing bingo with a vengeance on centerstage, behind the Bingo Master, where a long bingo table has magically appeared with Zhaboonigan at the table's center banging a crucifix Veronique has brought along for good luck. The scene is lit so that it looks like 'The Last Supper.'" This visual cue becomes a foreshadowing of Marie-Adele's imminent death, as well as a playful allusion to how playing bingo is something like a religious experience for the women.
Toilet Bowl (Motif)
All of the women have a dream item that they plan to spend their bingo winnings on, but the only woman to win at bingo and realize this dream is Philomena. Philomena talks, from the first scene on, about wanting a new toilet bowl. Her desire for a new toilet becomes a kind of motif. While her sister Pelajia has loftier dreams of using the money to elevate the reserve itself, Philomena simply wants a more throne-like installation for defecation. She speaks in florid description about the toilet bowl she will buy, a kind of grotesque joke about where her priorities lie.
Nanabush (Symbol)
Throughout the play, the characters are visited by the spirit of Nanabush, a trickster that seems to always disorient things and make life harder. Nanabush is a symbol for ancient Indigenous spirituality, for disorder, and the power of ineffable and unseen spiritual forces. Highway inserts him into his play as a way of breaking down the boundary between Indigenous symbology and Western realistic theater. Nanabush is a disruptive, powerful, and creative force within the narrative of the play.
