The second production of the University of the Fraser Valley Theatre department‘s 2012/13 season is the bittersweet tragicomedy Ernestine Shuswap Gets Her Trout, by award-winning First Nations playwright Tomson Highway.
In the story, the audience can spend time with four women of the Shuswap, Okanagan and Thompson First Nations as they prepare a banquet for the arrival of Canadian Prime Minister Sir Wilfrid Laurier in 1910.
Everything must be perfect for the visit: the Saskatoon pies, the stuffed beaver, and Ernestine Shuswap’s famous trout.
In this production, the 100 years (from first contact with the First Nations people to the time of Sir Laurier’s arrival) are condensed into the time frame of one day. As the day progresses, the women move through a world in transition, as new laws, imposed by the European settlers, create a dreadful chasm between the two communities.
Ernestine Shuswap Gets Her Trout opens Friday, Jan. 11 at 7.30 p.m. in the theatre on the Chilliwack North campus on the corner of Yale and Airport, with two half price previews Jan. 9-10.
The show runs Jan. 12, 17-19 and 24-26 with matinees on Sunday, Jan. 20 and 27 at 2 p.m. and Jan. 21 at noon.
For more information and reservations call Rick Mawson at 604-795-2814, email to theatre@ufv.ca or visit www.ufv.ca/theatre.