Goderich Little Theatre
After losing its last (and biggest) production of the 2019/2020 season when COVID-19 shut down the run of Mamma Mia!, and the entirety of the 2020/2021 season, the Goderich Little Theatre is finally able to make plans for its 2021/2022 season.
The season will open in October with the very local A Killing Snow, by Huron County playwright Paul Ciufo and directed by Nina Reynolds. Four strangers are stranded in the secluded farmhouse of a retired Latin teacher during a Huron County blizzard. The body count rises and the fates are tempted as the storm outside becomes less dangerous than the house of terror in which the travelers have found themselves. Ciufo has created a memorable “whodunit” with wit and clever wordplay that has true Huron County flair, which premiered at the nearby Blyth Festival in 2010.
December brings the Christmas play, Ethan Claymore by perennial favourite Norm Foster, to the stage. It will charm audiences with its supernatural traditions of the season. Widowed egg farmer Ethan Claymore is having trouble finding his Christmas spirit until he meets a woman just before Christmas and receives a visit from his estranged (and recently deceased) brother. It is a comedy full of laughter and warmth that will tug at your heart.
What theatre season is complete without an off-the-wall comedy? Leading Ladies by Ken Ludwig (Lend Me a Tenor and Moon Over Buffalo) fills the playbill with the story of two down-on-their-luck actors performing Shakespeare on the Moose Lodge circuit in the Amish countryside of Pennsylvania. Stolen identities and romantic entanglements abound when the pair concoct a scheme to finagle the fortune of an elderly lady in York, Pennsylvania. The show is just the cure for the winter blahs in late February.
Tempting Providence by Robert Chafe is the story of Myra Bennett who arrived in the outport of Daniel’s Harbour, Newfoundland in 1921 for a two-year contract and never left. She delivered more than 700 babies, extracted at least 5,000 teeth, set broken limbs, performed kitchen table operations by lamplight and was known throughout Newfoundland and Labrador as “Florence Nightingale of the North”. This is a wonderful heartfelt portrayal of Nurse Bennett who, for more than 50 years, was the only medical aide along the almost 350 miles of rugged coastline on the Great Northern Peninsula. Chafe’s exquisite storytelling transports an audience, and has been a hit from coast-to-coast since it premiered in 2000 at Theatre Newfoundland, just down the road from Bennett’s home. This rounds out the season in May of 2022.
Audience capacity, house configuration and intermission format are all still hinging on public health guidance as of press time, but the Goderich Little Theatre is excited to return to the stage. It is one of the longest-running amateur theatre companies in the province and owns and operates the beautiful and historic Livery Theatre, just off the Square. 35 South St., Goderich. www.thelivery.ca