Setting

When Pelajia Patchnose, at the opening of the play, tells her sister that she wants to leave Wasy and "go to Toronto," Philomena replies, "But you were born here," as if this is reason enough for her to stay. As the play progresses, however, the audience learns that this is reason enough; one of the play's chief issues is that home is where the heart is; how a group of people learn to respect their homeland and stand up to the challenges that make their lives' difficult rather than run off to a different place. "This place is too much inside your blood," Philomena tells Pelajia. "You can't get rid of it. And it can't get rid of you." The sisters frequently lapse into Cree, such as when Pelajia says," Aw-ni-gi-naw-ee-dick [Oh, go on]" to Philomena or when Marie-Adele and Nanabush conduct an entire conversation in the same...