Category: Previous Shows

Wrong for each other

A comedy by Norm Foster

Directed by Tom Mackan
Produced by Peter Malysewich

Widely praised, this terrific play comes with all of life’s reality enough to keep audiences totally involved, laughing and deeply moved at the same time. When Foster gets his genius working on a relationship between a man and woman, the exploration grabs us and keeps us fully engaged. Rudy and Norah meet quite accidentally after over three years of divorce and they set off on a memory trip of discovery that is classic in its telling. This is a near masterpiece of writing with dialogue astounding in its understanding of people and how they cope. And don’t forget, ever so funny and moving for all that.

“Positively sparkles with wit and entertainment from start to finish.”
– North Shore Times, Australia

“Foster’s deceptively simple comedy echoes with a haunting resonance long after the laughter has faded away.”
– Montreal Suburban

Production Dates: September 21-22, 27-29 October 4-6 2012

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Midnight Madness

A comedy by Dave Carley

Directed by Al French
Produced by Sondra Learn

A romantic comedy, the kinder, gentler cousin of the mainstream stuff. Here’s a comedy to warm your laugh centre, the way a glass of good wine lifts your mood. It’s just minutes before midnight at Bloom’s Furniture sale. The salesman Wesley is closing the store for last time. When Anna Bregner arrives she has no idea that the lonely salesman is a former classmate. But Wesley remembers her all too well – he has kept tabs on all his former classmates. Anna has returned to this town to start a new career, which coincides with the end of Wesley’s.

Production Dates: April 13-14, 19-21, 26-28 2012

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The Imaginary Invalid

A comedy by Moliere, adapted by Miles Malleson

Directed by Tom Mackan
Produced by Michelle Spanik

Uproarious farce!

Moliere took the starch out of all the foolish phonies of his day and here he hits the medical quacks, their sidekicks and the fake invalids they prey upon. An adaptation in the best tradition of the British farce, every character aims to use poor Argan and his imaginary illnesses for their own benefit. He’s the master of his household, he thinks. But not to his perky and saucy servant Toinette, however, who delights in her impertinence. His daughter Angelique is hopelessly in love with the handsome Cleante but Argan has a greater plan for her, to marry her to his doctor’s son and gain a doctor from the deal. But resourceful Toinette inserts herself into a plot to foil her master. Everybody conspires to take advantage of him. But he has schemes of his own and the comedy becomes side-splitting. The laughs pile up until the incredible finale when the imaginary invalid gets the reward he deserves!

February 3-5*, 10-12*, 16-18 2012
*matinee 2:00 pm

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You Can’t Dance to Mozart

A comedy by John F. Green

Directed by Sondra Learn
Produced by Chuck Learn

What’s funny about “retired” and “pensioner”?

You’ll find out to your delight when you see this production by Oshawa writer, John F. Green. When the landlord raises the rent on pensioner Barney Walden’s apartment one time too many, Barney takes matters into his own hands – he stops paying the rent. Threatened with eviction he recruits his new love Kate, a retired school teacher from upstairs into an elaborate real estate scheme designed to bring the landlord to his knees. As the situation becomes more and more hilarious, and buddies Max and Boris become involved, and so too does Kate’s estranged daughter, Susan, and the scheme backfires, the chaos that follows will have you rolling in the aisles.

“Highest grossing play in seven years”, reports Class Act Dinner Theatre in Whitby.

From The Grand Prairie Alberta Encore, “..delivers laughs and current-events realism!”

Production Dates: September 16-17, 22-24, 29-30 October 1 2011

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The Miracle Worker

By William Gibson

Directed by Sondra Learn
Produced by Chuck Learn

Who can forget the huge way we were involved as audiences in the 1960s story of Annie Sullivan and the child Helen Keller, together forging an inspiring story of trial and success in 19th century America. A Burlington production with area talent is long overdue, and audiences will be fully rewarded by this immensely challenging play. A must see for the season, to be sure!

Production Dates: April 15-16, 21-23, 28-30 2011

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Chapter Two

By Neil Simon

Directed by Tom Mackan
Produced by Jan & John Durbin

When Neil Simon writes about a guy trying to help another guy solve a romantic crisis we’re sure to be in for a couple of hours of huge laughs. Simon knows his marital and romantic roadmaps and never misses the right twist or turn to keep us completely involved and always en route to hilarity. This play is one of his best.

George, a recent widower and a writer, can’t get out of his depression. Bring on his younger brother Leo with plans to get him dating again. Predictably there is a series of bad matches and the fun begins. But Leo comes up with Jennie who looks like a keeper, and this pair of not so young lovers set out on a bumpy road to happiness-ever-after, but not without the comedy that Simon can so dependably provide. Laugh after laugh will keep us rolling along. Add a neurotic friend of Jenny to mix it up with Leo and the merriment is irrepressible.

“A sure smash!”
 – Variety

“Lovely, whimsical, and touching and always funny .. most of the time downright hilarious.”
 – New York Post

Production Dates: February 4-5, 10-13*, 17-19 2011
*matinee 2:00 pm

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The Subject was Roses

By Frank D. Gilroy

Directed by Dia Frid
Produced by Michelle Spanik

1964 Pulitzer Prize Play and winner of two Tony Awards, the play is still a persuasive story of a small family after WW2. John and Nettie come to terms with their returning son, whose values and life style are at odds with the familiar ways of their pre-war days. In scenes tender and moving, witty and funny, sharp and incisive, this small and nuclear family seeks to come together in a changing America. Neither sad nor tragic, this is just a wonderfully written story of life and getting along.

Production Dates: September 17-18, 23-25, 30 October 1-2 2010

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Caught in the Net

A comedy by Ray Cooney

Directed by Brian Morton
Produced by Sondra Learn

A bigamist taxi driver John Smith keeps his two families in different parts of London, both happy and blissfully unaware of each other. However, his teenage children, a girl from one family and a boy from the other, have met on the Internet and are anxious to meet in person since they have so much in common; name, surname and taxi driving dad! Keeping them apart plunges John into a hell hole of his own making. His lodger Stanley could be a saviour, but he is about to go on holiday with his decrepit old father who turns up thinking he is already at the guest house. The situation spirals out of control as John juggles outrageously with the truth.

“Brilliant … The funniest play of the year.”
– Daily Mail

“A sheer joy from beginning to end.”
 – Daily Telegraph

Production Dates: April 16-17, 22-24, 29-30 May 1 2010

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