Despite Canadian aboriginals’ long-documented inclination towards
performance, Native dramaturgy is a recent phenomenon. Born out of
the feeling of having been wronged but, fortunately, not of the desire to
take revenge, Native playwrights base their pieces on the collision between
the Euroamerican intellectual tradition and the mythic perspective
of a quite sophisticated oral literature, which claims knowledge is
born from the revelation found in the marvellous. They imagine spaces
in which common and uncommon things exist side by side, design plays
for the entertainment and education of Natives and non-Natives alike,
and aim at encouraging a transnational solidarity. In the present paper I
analyse Native drama in terms of themes and techniques, I argue it is
informed by the vision of Bertolt Brecht and the surrealism of Sam
Shepard, and suggest that comedy is the most suitable genre for its
authors’ purposes.
