Reconciliation Theatre Society is launching a six-city tour throughout Vancouver Island this July with Women of the Fur Trade by Anishinaabe and Slovene playwright Frances Koncan.
Set in “eighteen hundred and something-something”, Women of the Fur Trade is described as a powerful satire that shifts perspective from the male gaze on history to the power of women and their place in the rapidly changing world of the Canadian fur trade.
Snuneymuxw and Tsleil Watuth actor Talela Manson plays “Eugenia”, an Ojibwe fur trapper. In the play, Eugenia becomes trapped in a fort on the banks of the “Reddish River” in Treaty One Territory with a Métis woman, who is determined to woo Louis Riel, and a pregnant British wife, who is anxiously waiting on her husband's return from an expedition.
“Come check it out. It will be a really fun time. We’ve been working on this play for so long, but every time we have a new person come watch us or hear it for the first time, hearing their laughter really brings new energy. I’m excited to bring it and feel that medicine when we come out,” said Manson.
Women of the Fur Trade marks the fourth annual summer tour of Vancouver Island for the Indigenous-led theatre company. The tour starts in Nanaimo with two dates on July 1 and July 2, heads to Courtenay for July 4, Campbell River July 5, Port Alberni July 11, Ucluelet July 12 and ends in Ladysmith on July 16.
Tickets to the Port Alberni show on Saturday, July 11 are free to audience members thanks to a grant from the City of Port Alberni. The Saturday, July 4 show in Courtenay is also free courtesy of the Sid Williams Theatre.
“To their credit, they’ve come up with (funds) to cover the costs so that we can open the doors and let everyone in. That’s been one of our goals. Our performing arts venues, our theatres in Canada, have a lot of segregated history to them. There are some people in their 20s and 30s in Reconciliation Theatre who talk about going to movie theaters when they were kids and their family automatically went to the balcony every time,” said Tom Rokeby, Reconciliation Theatre’s artistic director.
He brought up the story Canadian civil rights pioneer Viola Desmond, the young black Nova Scotia woman who refused to leave the segregated “whites only” section of the Roseland movie theatre in New Glasgow, Nova Scotia. At the time in 1946, black people could only sit on the balcony.
Desmond was arrested, jailed for a night and convicted for a “tax offence”. She was pardoned posthumously in 2010 by the Nova Scotia government and selected by the minister of Finance to be on Canada’s $10 bill in 2018.
“She’s like our Rosa Parks,” said Tom.
“When I became a teacher at John Barsby, I worked with a lot of Indigenous students off of the No. 1 reserve. They really had nowhere to go when they finished high school. Starting (Reconciliation Theatre) just seemed like a pretty natural way to make my own community better,” he said.
Twenty-two-year-old Manson agrees. She says the theatre company has opened a path that wasn’t there before.
“Reconciliation Theatre has been a great opportunity for me to continue theatre outside of high school,” said Manson.
Director Lisa Rokeby shared that Reconciliation Theatre began in 2018 as a play reading circle, with a focus on reading Indigenous plays.
“We’ve hit some really tough subjects, but so many of them were told through humour. It is such an accessible way to consume your history because you get to laugh and laugh and then suddenly it will stab you in the heart halfway through,” she said.
In Women of the Fur Trade, the character “Eugenia” deals with language loss, an issue that actor Manson holds dear to her heart, and the Métis character makes references to the Sixties Scoop.
“It’s a very complex play that is written in an accessible way,” said Lisa.
“It’s actually amazing how funny (the play) is for the material,” Tom adds.
Manson speaks the Hul’q’umi’num language in her community with her grandpa. She says her character in Women of the Fur Trade uses the Anishinaabe word for ‘thank you’.
“I’d like to see more (traditional) language in more plays. I’m excited to see how that can be implemented more in theatre,” said Manson.
Lisa brought up a quote she heard from Algonquin playwright Yvette Nolan:
“When you’re watching a comedy and you lean back to laugh, that’s when the good medicine gets in, and that’s exactly how this play is written,” said Lisa.
Tickets are $25/adults and $20/students, except for the Port Alberni and Courtenay shows, which are free. Go to Reconciliationtheatre.ca to save your seats.
