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.

ReFrame Film Festival is a local, long-running event grounded in Nogojiwanong/Peterborough. As the festival approaches its 25th anniversary, it continues to be shaped by a team with deep roots in this community.

All current ReFrame staff members grew up in this area, many of them rurally, and were taught from a young age to see and respect the relationship between themselves and their environment. This lived experience informs Team ReFrame’s connections to this place, and shapes the festival’s programming today.

Through their work, the ReFrame team seeks to foster meaningful connections between the lands and waters of this region, the next generation, and film programming which highlights environmental responsibility and tangible change in a world gripped by the global climate crisis.

ReFrame is one community member within a broader network of local organizations that care for and help shape this place. They view their responsibility to environmental justice as central to the festival’s purpose, not separate from it.

This commitment is evident in ReFrame’s programming, which highlights the important and impactful work being done locally and globally to combat the climate crisis. By bringing these stories to the community, the festival creates space for learning, reflection, and action, rooted in shared responsibility.

Among this year’s diverse program of over 40 films is one film that approaches environmental justice through a uniquely youth-centred lens. Award-winning filmmaker Damon Gameau’s Future Council balances the urgent need for climate action with imaginative, solutions-oriented thinking while amplifying the voices of those with the most at stake.

VIDEO: “Future Council” trailer

Screening at Showplace Performance Centre on Saturday, January 31 at 12:30 p.m., Future Council follows a group of young activists as they travel across Europe on a bus powered by biofuel. Along the way, the “Future Council” is formed to challenge companies to think differently, take responsibility, and act with the future in mind.

This powerful film is not to be missed and will inspire audiences of all ages. But, it doesn’t end when the credits roll.

With every ReFrame film, there is a hope that audiences will engage beyond the experience of the screening and take action for social and environmental change on a local, national, or international level.

In this spirit, Future Council offers a unique invitation: “Any young person aged 9 to 16, anywhere in the world, can join the Future Council.”

While the Future Council welcomes parents, teachers, business leaders, and other supporters, it is fundamentally a child-led organization. The Future Council is “here to design our future and we’re doing it with creativity, courage, and lots of fun.”

Working towards a sustainable future means centring on the voices of those who will inherit that work. Locally, nationally, and globally, their perspectives are vital. Taking action now helps ensure that future generations grow, learn, are inspired, and take action in turn.

This film is an invitation for all young people to join in the conversation, both at ReFrame and on the global stage.

Future Council is also an invitation to listen. As new generations grow up in this community, creating spaces for their voices and leadership strengthens the community as a whole. The work of protecting the planet requires collective care and collaboration, and ReFrame is an important place for coming together.

Join the screening to witness this inspiring group in action, and be part of the movement that’s making change to protect the planet.

ReFrame’s social and environmental justice documentary festival returns in a hybrid format in downtown Nogojiwanong/Peterborough from January 30 to February 1, and online across Canada from February 3 to 8.

In-person, hybrid, and virtual festival passes, as well as individual tickets for both in-person and virtual screenings, are available now. Individual in-person tickets will also be available at festival venues on a rush basis 15 minutes in advance of each scheduled screening between Jan. 30 and Feb. 1. Learn more and purchase passes and tickets today at reframefilmfestival.ca.

Learn more about Future Council at futurecouncil.global/.