The Belfry Theatre’s season opener is a hilariously anarchic exploration of the Red River Rebellion
Photo by Peter Pokorny.
The year is “eighteen hundred something something.” Outside a fort on the Reddish River (historically known as the Red River), what will become the Red River Rebellion is brewing. But inside the fort sit three women with nothing else to do but gossip over their celebrity crushes: Louis Riel (played by Aren Okemaysim) and Thomas Scott (played by Jonathan Mason).
So opens The Women of the Fur Trade, the latest show put on by The Belfry Theatre.
The play immediately defines its style of storytelling by using modern dialogue and slang despite the historical setting. The modern dialogue is used for comedy in the first few scenes to help ease the audience into the world of the play and its internal logic, but is effective throughout. The slang never feels forced in for the sake of being “hip” or “#relatable.”
By having modern dialogue and slang, The Women of the Fur Trade explores a common question often asked of historical pieces — why is this relevant today? The linguistic choices of the show represent a blunt approach to that question, but an effective and entertaining one.
While the world is changing outside the fort, Marie-Angelique (played by Kelsey Kanatan Wavey), Cecilia (played by Amanda Lisman), and Eugenia (played by Danica Charlie) are bored. Due to the gendered expectations of the time, these women are expected to sit and wait for their husbands. Marie-Angelique, the youngest of the three, is yet to be married, and fantasizes about the perfect man. She has developed a crush on Métis resistance leader and founder of Manitoba Louis Riel, based on all the stories she’s heard about him.
The production renders their world is deliberately small, contrasting Marie-Angelique and Eugenia’s straining to be part of something bigger — something that may result in meaningful political change and power as Indigenous women in Manitoba.
By contrast, Cecilia, a white woman, is mainly concerned with her and her many children’s safety inside the fort.
The limited world that the women operate in is reflected in the set design, which is kept simple. A small wooden fort with no doors opens up to reveal the three of them in their rocking chairs. Occasionally, the fort is closed for scenes that feature Riel and Scott, and their own strange friendship, neither as noble as Marie-Angelique and Cecilia imagine them to be.
The doorless, windowless fort is used for both comedic and dramatic effect. While initially, the fact that the set doesn’t have a door isn’t unusual — it’s a set — until the characters themselves draw attention to it.
The play’s humour is strengthened by the genuinely funny dialogue, and a cast that knows how to deliver it. All five actors featured in the show have great comedic timing, and play off each other fantastically well. Wavey, Lisman, and Charlie come across as both close but reluctant friends as the political realities of the rebellion test their friendship.
The Women of the Fur Trade is an anarchic and hilarious exploration of Canadian history, and the unresolved threads of the Red River Rebellion that continue to affect our world today. It’s about friendship. It’s about celebrity crushes. It’s about finding the strength to do something while the world irreparably changes, and the actions you have to take. And it’s very fun.
The Women of the Fur Trade runs until Oct. 4. Tickets are available on the Belfry Theatre’s website.
