Walsh
A historical documentary of Sitting Bull’s exile in Canada after the Montana massacre at Little Big Horn. The play examines Sitting Bull’s relationship with superintendent Walsh of the North West Mounted Police and is the study of the disillusionment of a man who believes in his government’s integrity but who is betrayed by that government.“This is the law,” Walsh declares, “but where is the justice?” Premiered at Theatre Calgary. Subsequently performed at Stratford’s Third Stage.
Sharon Pollock was born Mary Sharon Chalmers in Fredericton, New Brunswick, in 1936, where she first became involved in the theatre in university. Later, with the Praire Players, she toured British Columbia and Alberta in 1966, and was voted Best Actress at the Dominion Drama Festival. She settled in Calgary the next year, raised a family, and while pregnant with her sixth child she began writing her first play. In 1973, Walsh (1983) premiered at Theatre Calgary. A subsequent production in 1974 at the Stratford Festival brought Pollock’s writing to wide public attention. She has written many plays, including Blood Relations and Other Plays, which won the Governor General’s Award in 1981, and Doc (1985), which won the Governor General’s Award in 1986.
