About the Play:

The Hours That Remain is a full-length drama by Keith Barker. Michelle disappears. Denise dedicates her life to finding her sister. Daniel struggles to keep Denise from a similar fate. When a woman goes missing, the life of her family is thrown upside down and out of time. How far will they go for answers? The Hours That Remain is inspired by the plight of missing and murdered Indigenous women and girls in Canada.

The Hours That Remain is inspired by the true stories of missing and murdered Indigenous women and girls (MMIWG) – particularly from the notorious Highway of Tears, an 800-kilometre stretch of British Columbia road between Prince George and Prince Rupert. The highway received its name due to the high number of unsolved murders and disappearances of young women along the highway since 1969. Many of these women are Indigenous. Michelle and Denise are sisters, Denise and Daniel are a married couple who live together. One evening as Michelle drives home, her car breaks down along the highway and she catches a ride with a transport truck driver. That is the night she goes missing. For years after, Michelle's disappearance Denise desperately seeks answers to her sister's disappearance. Haunted by loose ends, she begins seeing visions of Michelle, who gradually guides her in the right direction. As Denise's marriage and sanity crumble around her, she remains committed to unearthing an unfathomable truth, and coming to terms with a painfully crucial realization – one she has been desperately avoiding. The Hours That Remain is a poignant indictment of the impact of violence on women and the legacy of loss endured by families, friends, community, and our society as a whole.

The Hours That Remain premiered in 2012 by Saskatchewan Native Theatre at Studio 914 in Saskatoon and earned four Saskatoon and Area Theatre Awards and won the Achievement in Playwriting Award. Since then the play had regional premieres at professional theatres across Canada and won a Yukon Arts Award for Best Art for Social Change.

Cast: 2 female, 1 male

What people say:

"Keith Barker's searing new play ... is a testament to how rarely the plight of missing aboriginal women makes it into the headlines." — Georgia Straight

"...this play ingeniously casts light on the issue without making you feel like you'd rather be somewhere else." — The Saskatoon Star Phoenix

About the Playwright:

Keith Barker is a member of the Métis Nation of Ontario. A graduate of the George Brown Theatre School, he was the recipient of the SAT Award for excellence in playwriting, and the Yukon Arts Audience Award for Best Art for Social Change. In addition to his work as an actor, playwright, and director, he has served on the Toronto Arts Council Theatre Committee and the board of the Indigenous Performing Arts Alliance. In May 2017 he was named the Artistic Director of Native Earth Performing Arts, Canada's oldest professional Indigenous theatre company.