Ernestine Shuswap Gets Her Trout
By TOMSON HIGHWAY
Directed by KEVIN LORING
A TIMELESS AND CHEEKY LOCAL FABLE
It’s been more than 25 years since Western Canada Theatre and the Secwepemc Cultural Education Society commissioned this work by Tomson Highway, and more than 20 since it premiered right here on the Sagebrush stage. The play collapses a century of history between the peoples of the Shuswap and the rapidly expanding settler communities into a single day in August, 1910, and follows four women as they prepare a feast for the arrival of Wilfred Laurier, the Big Kahuna of Canada. The story is appropriately massive in scope, ranging from riotous comedy to epic tragedy; its form deeply influenced by the trickster spirit of Coyote. We are honoured to have director Kevin Loring returning to Kamloops to bring this seminal piece of local history and Canadian stagecraft back to life in the place where it was first conceived.
“Highway’s is a voice unlike any other playwrights in the world”
—VANCOUVER PLAYS
Sagebrush Theatre
Sagebrush Theatre is a 685-seat proscenium theatre at 1300 9th Avenue, at the corner of 9th Avenue and Munro Street beside South Kamloops Secondary School. The venue is owned by School District No. 73, operated by the City of Kamloops, and managed by Western Canada Theatre.
The theatre is the home venue of Western Canada Theatre and the Kamloops Symphony, while also hosting school performances, community productions, touring artists, concerts, dance, assemblies, and other events. Its soft-seat auditorium includes designated accessible and limited-mobility seating, and the facility offers audience amenities such as universal washrooms, a concession and bar, and a lobby suitable for receptions, meetings, workshops, and displays.
