Koncan’s zahgidiwin/love earns playwright award

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This article was published 26/07/2016 (3370 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

Plays usually just compete for audiences at the Winnipeg Fringe Theatre Festival, with one exception.

Every year, the Manitoba Association of Playwrights presents an award for the best new play by a Manitoba playwright — the Harry S. Rintoul Award, named for the late Winnipeg playwright who championed the fringe as a place where local writers could find an audience.

On Sunday evening, the final night of the 29th edition of the theatre fest, the award was presented to local playwright Frances Koncan for her work zahgidiwin/love, described as “a dark comedy about trauma, genocide, and decolonization amidst an era of Truth & Reconciliation.”

Set across three time periods of Canadian history — a residential school in the 1960s, a murderer’s basement in the ‘90s and a castle in the post-apocalyptic future — the play received a four-star review from Free Press fringe reviewer Kevin Prokosh during its run at the Onstage at the Pantages Theatre venue.

The play will travel to the Vancouver Fringe Festival in September followed by Toronto’s Native Earth’s Weesagechak Festival in November.

Randall King
Reporter

In a way, Randall King was born into the entertainment beat.

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