Play by Governor General's Award-winning playwright Kevin Loring to make Kamloops debut

Play tells story of land claim

Photo: Western Canada Theatre

Gordon Patrick White in Theatre Calgary's production of Little Red Warrior.

A play by a Lytton-raised award-winning playwright will be making its Kamloops debut later this month at the Sagebrush Theatre.

Little Red Warrior and His Lawyer is described as a “trickster land-claim fable” is written and directed by Governor General’s Award winner Kevin Loring, a member of the Nlaka’pamux Nation and artistic director of the National Arts Centre Indigenous Theatre in Ottawa.

In a news release, Western Canada Theatre says the play follows Little Red Warrior, the last member of the Little Red Warrior First Nation, who attacks an engineer in a fit of rage after discovering a land development company has violated his traditional territory.

In jail, he meets his court-appoint lawyer, Larry, who bails him out and invites him to stay at his home.

“As all may soon learn, when you invite a coyote into your coop, he might just walk away with the chickens,” WCT said.

The play premiered in Victoria in 2022 and has played in Vancouver and Calgary since.

“I was taking a playwriting class and wanted to write a comedy about land claims,” Loring said.

“Through these classic European farces, mixed with the Coyote Trickster stories of my own culture, filtered through my own experience, Little Red Warrior came out.”

WCT’s production of the play is co-produced by Vancouver-based Savage Society and Victoria-based Belfry Theatre in association with NAC Indigenous Theatre and Theatre Calgary.

It stars Gordon Patrick White in the title role, alongside Luisa Jojic, Kevin McNulty, Shekhar Paleja and Nick Miami Benz.

The play will run at the Sagebrush Theatre from Feb. 20 to March 2. Tickets and further information is available on WCT’s website.