WOMEN OF THE FUR TRADE Comes to The Firehall Arts Centre

The Firehall Arts Centre will produce and present Women of the Fur Trade from Saturday, February 8 to Sunday, February 23, 2025.

Set in eighteen hundred and something-something, somewhere upon the banks of a Reddish River in Treaty One Territory, three very different women with a preference for 21st century slang find themselves stuck in a fort having tea and sharing their views on life, love, and Louis Riel.

Playwright Frances Koncan shifts the focus in this powerfully funny satire from the male gaze on history to the power of women and their place in the rapidly changing world of the Canadian fur trade.

“I am truly excited to be producing the West Coast premiere of this work,” says Firehall Arts Centre’s Artistic Producer Donna Spencer. “Frances Koncan’s satirical look at the lives of women during the time of Louis Riel and the colonization of Canada is a very clever way of illustrating the dismantling of the traditional lives of Métis and Indigenous people of the time. Mixing contemporary references with historical actions allows the story of the play to be told in a manner that takes us from the present to the past and back again.”

Credits for Women of the Fur Trade:

Playwright:  Frances Koncan

Performers:  Danica Charlie, Kaitlyn Yott, Kate Besworth, Wayne Lavallee, and Evan Rein

Director:  Donna Spencer

Assistant Director:  Cheri Maracle

Set Designer:  Kimira Reddy 

Lighting Designer:  Rebekah Johnson

Costume Designer:  Emily Friesen