Sarah Ballenden

By (author): Maureen Hunter

Anyone who has delved into the history of the Red River Settlement will have come across the name Sarah Ballenden. Her 1850 trial is one of the most famous in Manitoba legal history. The fact that her name isn’t officially attached to the trial – we know it as Foss v. Pelly – is a reflection of the laws of the day, not of her commitment to the proceedings. “I was the first person to get this business investigated,” Sarah testified in court. “I had determined to proceed in it.” “This business” was defamation. Sarah’s character and reputation were under attack. She was the wife of a Hudson’s Bay Company Chief Factor, a position which in fur trade society traditionally commanded respect. One contemporary observed that the wives of Chief Factors, most of whom were “mixed-blood”, were treated like queens. Sarah, though also of British/Indigenous descent, was not. Why? Was it her personality, her behaviour? Did she bring condemnation upon herself? Or were there other forces at work? This play explores Sarah’s struggle for respect in a world of shifting values, as the great fur trade empire that had ruled the Northwest for two centuries and had shaped her life and the lives of thousands like her limped to a close. Caught in a tidal wave of change whose ramifications are still being felt, Sarah Ballenden is truly an original Canadian heroine.

AUTHOR

Maureen Hunter

Maureen Hunter is one of Canada’s most accomplished playwrights. Her work has been produced from coast to coast in Canada, in theatres large and small, in the U.S. and the U.K., and by CBC and BBC Radio. She has been short-listed for two Governor General’s Awards and two Dora Mavor Moore Awards (Outstanding New Play). Her play Sarah Ballenden premiered at Royal Manitoba Theatre Centre in April 2017 under the direction of Steven Schipper. RMTC also premiered Vinci, Atlantis, Transit of Venus and Beautiful Lake Winnipeg. Transit of Venus became the first Canadian play to be produced by the Royal Shakespeare Company. An opera version, for which she wrote the libretto, premiered at Manitoba Opera in 2007. Other plays include Wild Mouth, premiered by Toronto’s Tarragon Theatre in 2008, and Footprints on the Moon, premiered by Agassiz Theatre, Winnipeg, in 1988. Footprints received its European premiere at the Finborough Theatre in London in May 2017.

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Anyone who has delved into the history of the Red River Settlement will have come across the name Sarah Ballenden. Her 1850 trial is one of the most famous in Manitoba legal history. The fact that her name isn’t officially attached to the trial – we know it as Foss v. Pelly – is a reflection of the laws of the day, not of her commitment to the proceedings. “I was the first person to get this business investigated,” Sarah testified in court. “I had determined to proceed in it.” “This business” was defamation. Sarah’s character and reputation were under attack. She was the wife of a Hudson’s Bay Company Chief Factor, a position which in fur trade society traditionally commanded respect. One contemporary observed that the wives of Chief Factors, most of whom were “mixed-blood”, were treated like queens. Sarah, though also of British/Indigenous descent, was not. Why? Was it her personality, her behaviour? Did she bring condemnation upon herself? Or were there other forces at work? This play explores Sarah’s struggle for respect in a world of shifting values, as the great fur trade empire that had ruled the Northwest for two centuries and had shaped her life and the lives of thousands like her limped to a close. Caught in a tidal wave of change whose ramifications are still being felt, Sarah Ballenden is truly an original Canadian heroine.

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Details

Dimensions:

96 Pages
8.5in * 5.5in * 0.25in
0.1875lb

Published:

October 01, 2017

Country of Publication:

CA

ISBN:

9781927922378

Book Subjects:

DRAMA / Canadian

Featured In:

All Books

Language:

eng

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