Indian Blood hits the road

WHAT scores big with ‘Indian Blood’Loosely based on Gurney’s childhood in Buffalo in the 1940s, the play, which debuted in New York City in 2006, revolves around 16-year-old Eddie (Peter Russell), who gets suspended from school for drawing a dirty picture in Latin class. It must be his Indian blood, he tells his parents. According to family legend, Eddie’s great-great-grandmother was a Seneca Indian named Fabiola.

“It explains a lot of my disruptive behavior. Deep inside, I harbor a profound grudge against the customs of the white man,” he says.A sample of the play:If Eddie wants to rebel, Lambert, who is descended from another Indian tribe, the Tuscarora, desperately wants to be accepted. He’s a source of aggravation for Eddie, and provides the comedic tension in the play.

“I hear distant drums tonight,” says Eddie, when he learns he will attend a grown-up family Christmas party with Lambert. “That Lambert makes my Indian blood boil!”