Abstract
In "The Dummy," a short scene in the Rick Salutin/Theatre Passe Muraille collective creation 1837: The Farmer's Revolt, two actors playing a ventriloquist and his dummy address the crowd onstage and off in an allegorical representation of post-colonial mimicry. As the scene opens, the (pre-)Canadian colonial dummy speaks only in the voice (literally) of "John Bull — your imperial ventriloquist," mouthing platitudes and promising to cut trees and fight Yankees for England while being (literally) manipulated and having his pockets picked by the imperial puppet master. Towards the end of the scene, however, ignoring arguments that on his own he will be helpless, "a pitiable colonial," he stands independently and speaks in his own voice for the first time, rallying the crowd and introducing William Lyon Mackenzie, the radical political reformer and leader of the only class revolt in English Canada's history.
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