Peace Country x Firehall Arts Centre x Railtown. (via Pedro Augusto Meza)

Rice & Beans Theatre’s original climate action drama set in BC’s Northern Interior during wildfire season focuses on five friends from different backgrounds as they struggle to maintain their bonds to each other and their rural hometown that’s heavily reliant on the carbon economy for employment.

Playwright and director Pedro Chamale draws on his own experiences as an urban activist originally from Chetwynd to express both empathy for small-town life dependent on jobs that contribute to climate change and the call to action for a dramatic environmental shift. Moving back and forth through time and told compassionately in a non-linear fashion, Peace Country feels particularly urgent thanks to its overtly political machinations.

• Manuela Sosa (as Julia), Kaitlyn Yott (as Candice), Sara Vickruck (as Melissa), Sofía Rodríguez (as Alicia), and Angus Yam (as Greg).
• Running live on stage until Oct. 22. [sponsored]