What happens when untold stories of Canada’s nation-shaping fur trade are paired with modern slang and contemporary references?
A full house at Market Hall Performing Arts Centre will find out on Saturday, January 24 when audience members gather for New Stages Theatre’s staged reading of Women of the Fur Trade by Anishinaabe and Slovene playwright Frances Koncan.
Set in a fort in “1800 and something-something,” Women of the Fur Trade revolves around three fictional women — an Ojibwe, a Metis, and a British woman — who share their perspectives on life, love, and “hot nerd” Louis Riel during the Red River Resistance.
After finding that every account of the fur trade was from a man’s perspective, Koncan wrote the historical satire to shift the perspective from the male gaze onto the women’s power by satirizing the erasure and using 21st century verbiage.
“I think something that I’ve always been really drawn to is history that’s told in an accessible way — history that is a little fun and playful and not afraid to be a little silly,” said Koncan in a September 2025 interview for CBC’s North by Northwest with Margaret Gallagher.
“That’s something I definitely early on was bringing to the script. I absolutely tried to write it in a much more serious tone, and I realized pretty early on that it wasn’t my style. It wasn’t being truthful to who I was or maybe what my voice was, so I just started leaning into these characters who speak how I speak and speak how my friends speak, and that’s how we’re going to connect to this history is through these characters who talk like us but are in a different situation than us.”
VIDEO: “Women of the Fur Trade” (excerpt from 2023 Stratford Festival production)
Koncan wrote Women of the Fur Trade in 2017–2018 as a submission for the Toronto Fringe Festival, where it won Best New Play before being staged around the country with notable productions by the National Arts Centre and Stratford Festival.
“Our goal is to provide the best contemporary plays — a lot of them Canadian — and to bring them to our audience,” says New Stages artistic director Mark Wallace. “This one certainly has been performed all across Canada now. It’s the first time here, so we’re excited to see what people think of it.”
In addition to suggesting there is a desire for stories that offer an Indigenous perspective, Wallace says audiences are seeking out comedies this time of year and Women of the Fur Trade is a combination of both.
“It’s late January and I’m not going to see something that’s going to be terribly depressing,” Wallace jokes. “I’m drawn to comedies that have an edge to them. I think it’s fun to be able to laugh at ourselves and poke fun at ourselves. It makes it easier to sometimes cope with the way the world is.”
When the show comes to Market Hall, it will be staged by an all-star and familiar cast and team led by director Patti Shaughnessy. A member of the Mchi Saagig Anishnaabeg from Curve Lake First Nation, she is an actor, director, and producer who has worked on the Ode’min Giizis Festival and co-founded the arts collective O’Kaadenigan Wiingashk.
Shaughnessy has directed at the National Arts Centre among other theatres, and her acting spans acclaimed works by Tomson Highway, Cliff Cardinal, Tara Beagan, and Drew Hayden Taylor. In 2019, she shared the Peterborough Arts Awards’ Outstanding Mid-Career Artist award with actor Beau Dixon.
“Patti’s a great director and she’s such a talent and living right here in our community,” says Wallace. “She’s playful in the way that she thinks about staging and drama and so having her at the helm is very exciting.”
Taking to the stage as the women of the fur trade will be both local favourites and visiting professionals, including Coast Salish Indigenous performer Michelle Bardach. She will be making a stop at Market Hall following her role in the world premiere of Rez Gas at Port Hope’s Capitol Theatre last summer and before heading off to the Stratford Festival this year.
Bardach will be joined in the fort by award-winning Nakota/Assiniboine Nation film actor Sera-Lys McArthur, whose roles on screen have included parts in Arctic Air and Burden of Truth among others. Rounding out the women of the fur trade is local actor Megan Murphy, who just wrapped up a performance in New Stage’s It’s a Wonderful Life: A Live Radio Play in December.
The women will be joined by Dora Award winner Mac Fyfe as historical figure Thomas Scott, and Chris Mejaki — whose film Whistling Pine was featured in the Nogojiwanong Indigenous Fringe Festival last year — as Métis leader Louis Riel.
As of the publication date of this story, there are only a handful of stage-adjacent balcony tickets remaining for the performance, priced at $34 with a “welcome rate” of $24 and $44 “pay it forward” rate for those who can afford it. A wait list is available for preferred seats that may become available ahead of the show. To get on the waitlist, contact the Market Hall box office by calling 705-775-1503.
If you miss Women of the Fur Trade, Wallace assures there are lots of tickets still available for the Brand New Stages Festival, set to take place between Tuesday, February 24 and Sunday, March 1 at Market Hall and The Theatre on King.
Two shows, The Cull by Michele Riml and Michael St. John Smith and 12 Dinners by Steve Ross, have already been announced, but Wallace says audiences can expect to see more titles added to the lineup in the coming weeks, including some new Canadian scripts.
“We’ve got some big names coming plus some great local names and some local playwrights, too,” Wallace says. “It’s going to be a busy week, so we’re really excited for it.”
Tickets for New Stages Theatre can be purchased at the Market Hall box office at 140 Charlotte Street, by calling 705-749-1146, or online at tickets.markethall.org/?category=20.
kawarthaNOW is proud to be media sponsor of New Stages Theatre Company’s 2025-26 season.
