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"Barker is a natural-born raconteur." –Holly Harris, Winnipeg Free Press
After the sudden death of his father, Keith is flooded with memories—not of the man who left, but of the woman who stayed and raised three children on her own. Growing up surrounded by his mother, sisters, aunties, and friends, Keith was shaped by their humor, honesty, and hard-earned wisdom. Through a series of funny, moving, and at times embarrassing stories, Keith unpacks how a matriarchal household’s love, strength, and empathy made him who he is today and taught him how to forgive his father for abandoning his children.
Raised by Women is a heartfelt, laugh-out-loud tribute to matriarchal power and grace. With warmth and candour, award-winning playwright Keith Barker celebrates the women who taught him how to understand his emotions, be true to himself, and lead with his heart, offering a powerful counternarrative to patriarchal ideals so many of us are taught. Challenging long-held conventions about parenthood and masculinity, Keith provides a blueprint of emotional literacy for the next generation of men.
Keith Barker is a Métis artist from Northwestern Ontario and the former artistic director at Native Earth Performing Arts. Currently he is Director of the Foerster Bernstein New Play Development Program at the Stratford Festival. In 2023 Keith was a recipient of the Johanna Metcalf Prize and in 2020 he received a Dora Mavor Moore Award for Outstanding New Play and the Playwrights Guild of Canada’s Carol Bolt Award. Keith was a finalist for the Governor General’s Literary Award for Drama in 2018 for This Is How We Got Here. He received a Saskatchewan and Area Theatre Award for Achievement in Playwriting for The Hours That Remain, as well as a Yukon Arts Award for Best Art for Social Change. Keith returned to the stage in 2023, playing Louis Riel in Frances Koncan’s Women of the Fur Trade for the Stratford Festival. Other acting credits include Richard Hannay in Bruce County Playhouse’s The 39 Steps, Cornwall in the National Arts Centre’s production of King Lear, Roger Hughes in Seeds, and Bernard Smoke in Fury at the Blyth Festival. In 2025, Keith directed The Art of War by Yvette Nolan for the Stratford Festival.