James Wilson takes a look at Indians:
Buffalo Bill's Wild West shows were huge circus-like extravaganzas and ostentatious spectacles of American exceptionalism. At the height of their popularity in the 1890s the shows toured with as many as five hundred performers, hundreds of horses, and a herd of buffalo. They featured crackerjack sharpshooters (including Annie Oakley, who starred in several editions), depictions of Native American battles, and a staged buffalo hunt. Indians, Arthur Kopit's 1968 play, which has been revived by the Metropolitan Playhouse, uses the Wild West show as a means for deconstructing nationalistic cultural mythologies, paternalism, and greed. What could be more American, and what could be more timely? . . . |
