Gabriel Dumont's Wild West Show is a flamboyant epic, constructed as a
series of tableaux, about the struggles of the Métis in the Canadian
West. It is a multilayered and entertaining saga with a rodeo vibe,
loosely based on Buffalo Bill's legendary outdoor travelling show. In
1885, following the hanging of his friend Louis Riel, bison hunter
Gabriel Dumont fled to the United States. There he was recruited by the
legendary Buffalo Bill, founder of Buffalo Bill's Wild West, a
gigantic outdoor travelling show that re-enacted life in the American
West. It made a huge impression on Dumont, and he dreamed of putting
together a similar show to tell the story of the struggle of Canada's
Métis to reclaim their rights.
The creative team behind Gabriel Dumont's Wild West Show - including ten
authors, Indigenous and non-Indigenous, French- and English-speaking men
and women - brings Dumont's dream to life in a captivating, joyously
anachronistic saga. The theatrical version of Gabriel Dumont's Wild
West Show presented by the National Arts Centre was one of a number of
exceptional projects funded through the Canada Council for the Arts' New
Chapter initiative. (Adapted from nac-cna.ca/en/wildwestshow.