A little humor goes a long way

Page 18

REVIEW

The Baby Blues

By Drew Hayden Taylor

Talonbooks

93 pages

Imagine all the things that can happen in one summer to change a person's life. Now put that into one day, set it at a powwow and you have Drew Hayden Taylor's eighth published work, The Baby Blues.

Taylor's goal in this play is to showcase the Native sense of humor, which he succeeds at doing. With Noble as an aging fancy dancer and Skunk (and we all know one) as a young up and comer as two of the first characters we meet, it is hard not to want to read on.

Taylor opens his play with a Native wannabe who has discovered she is 1/64 Native and now wants to explore her Native roots. Oh brother! I can just see all the Indians rolling their eyes at the character of Summer. But while you're rolling your eyes, you'll be thinking 'He got that right on the money.' Some of the funniest scenes are with Summer and Skunk, who is trying to land this milk and honey babe with his "traditional" knowledge of all sorts of made-up ceremonies. He turns an early morning dip in the lake into a purification ritual in the tears of Mother Earth just so he can see Summer naked. Of course, Summer is so desperate to belong she buys into Skunk's deception.

Pashik, the young teenaged "I want to see the world" girl, is the daughter of Jenny, the "I need to protect Pashik from the world", mother who is on the powwow committee. Seventeen years ago a young fancy dancer swept through town and Jenny right off her feet leaving her with a grudge and a daughter. As a single mother Jenny does her best to keep the same thing from happening to Pashik.

When unbelievable coincidences occur, Pashik realizes that Noble is her father. She seeks out Amos, a travelling Elder who runs a mobile concession stand for advice. To keep Noble from running out on his daughter before he gets a chance to know her, Jenny swipes engine parts from his vehicle and has her brothers, constables on the reserve, watch the only road in and out.

In the end you'll be surprised who's a father, who isn't, and who gets together. It is a Native soap opera but with a sense of humor.

With a plethora of negative stories in the mainstream press about Aboriginal people, Taylor does a great service by writing a humorous play. By having a white character in the mix, it can draw in a non-Native audience a little more. He doesn't intentionally write a white character into the play for the audience, but for the betterment of the story.

Taylor doesn't mind making fun of white people, after all, his father is one. He also doesn't do it in a mean-spirited way, but in a way that speaks to non-Natives and says "Hey, this is how we see you sometimes. Now look at how we see ourselves."