Enjoy a weekend of Canadian plays, interspersed with good food and great entertainment at Shuswap Theatre this weekend.
“Theatre on the Edge 2017 is shaping up to be better and bolder than ever before, and that is saying something,” states Jaci Metivier. “We’re sticking with the winning combination of a one-hour show followed by an hour of live music…” Enjoy seven different shows with 14 performances over the weekend (each show is performed twice).
• Me, the Queen and a Coconut – Friday, July 21 at 3 p.m. Andrew Bailey’s hilarious and poignant solo show chronicles his time living and working as a servant at St. George’s Chapel, Windsor Castle. Popular with teens, seniors, and those in between, Me, the Queen, and a Coconut has sold out nearly every performance it’s ever had, including those at the Montreal, Winnipeg, Edmonton, and Victoria Fringe Festivals.
Bailey has long mixed comedy with serious subjects. His solo shows (including The Adversary, Limbo, and Putz) have won awards across the country. His comedic work with Victoria’s Atomic Vaudeville Cabaret has been acclaimed for over a decade and yielded the satiric monologue, Why Rape is Sincerely Hilarious, which has more than 2.2 million YouTube views and is featured on websites. His first novel, The Rite of James Biddle, is published by Bayeux Arts.
• The Reunion Project – Friday, July 21 at 5 p.m., Sunday, July 23 at 1 p.m.Ida and Old Baldy’s Seniors’ Theatre invites you to accompany them to the halls of learning for the Pinecrest Secondary School graduation class of 1967’s 50th Class Reunion. Some members of the class are excited to return; others are unsure, while others simply refuse. As Jeannie and Beannie and Thunder Boy and Lyle look back over the past 50 years, they realize that much about themselves has changed, but at the core, their experience of their high school days is still a part of who they are.
Ida and Old Baldy’s Seniors’ Theatre Project has been active in Salmon Arm and Blind Bay for more than five years. The goal is to promote healthy lifestyles for the players and fellow seniors through physical and intellectual activity and social interaction. Last spring, the project took a new direction with script-writing workshops with last year’s Theatre on the Edge production of The Essence of Me being the first creation of those incredibly active minds.
• The Most Honest Man in the World – Friday, July 21 at 7 p.m., Saturday, July 22 at 3 p.m. Andrew Wade builds a working lie detector machine onstage and straps himself in. Using stories, music, apps, and tap shoes, Wade looks at old relationships and insecurities as he explores his personal obsession with honesty and tries to learn how to honestly let go.
Wade is an award-winning actor and playwright from Richmond, B.C. He is a graduate from the University of Victoria and the National Voice Intensive, was selected as one of Richmond’s 30-under-30 in 2013, and won ‘Pick of the Fringe’ at the Vancouver Fringe Festival in 2015 for his writing for TITUS!: The Light and Delightful Musical Comedy of Titus Andronicus.
• Too Lazy to Write – Friday, July 21 at 9 p.m., Saturday, July 22 at 5 p.m.Monkey With A Button is the Interior’s premier improv comedy group, performing out of Vernon for five years. They are excited to bring their unique brand of comedy to Salmon Arm. Prepare to laugh and shout as our improvisers perform scenes based on audience suggestions. Don’t miss this chance to let your inner “Monkey” run wild. Who knows? You might even wind up on stage!
• The Supermarket – Saturday, July 22 at 11 a.m., Sunday, July 23 at 3 p.m. In a supermarket, cashiers run into problems over avocados, nuts, percentages, and points for frequent customers. Customers meet each other for lunch, friends encounter friends that have forgotten to return borrowed items, staff deals with toothaches and a wrapper raps. Salmon Arm Actors’ Studio presents this collection of short scenes that offer a funny (and familiar) look at a visit to your grocery store.
Longtime teacher and director James Bowlby began Salmon Arm Actors’ Studio in order to continue teaching theatre. It has since grown into a dinner theatre company with five shows produced so far at a variety of venues in Salmon Arm. The Supermarket is the first show written and produced for Theatre on the Edge.
• Saucy Fops – Saturday, July 22 at 1 p.m., Sunday, July 23 at 7 p.m.
As always, the Fops will present a series of short, comedic plays – lots of movement, music and humour. The Saucy Fops write, create and produce all of their own work. They have toured across Canada with the Canadian Fringe Festival to much acclaim, earning themselves three Best of Fest Awards. They call Kamloops home and have been doing productions there for 15 years. The Fops performed in the first two Theatre on the Edge festivals and were a big hit both times.
• The F Words – Saturday, July 22 at 9 p.m., Sunday, July 23 at 5 p.m. Fierce, funny and fearless, follow Yvette Dudley-Neuman’s Fran and friends on this fast-paced frolic. Experience Fran’s unrelenting compulsion to explore the “F” words from fat, forty, forgotten and F*cked to F??? Receiver of an Honourable Mention at the Theatre BC Playwriting Competition, this multi-media solo show is lively, tough, sexy, hilarious, relatable and transformational.
Dudley-Neuman is also an avid writer, producer and singer. She produced, wrote and played the lead role in her own short film and two full-length stage plays.
Visit the Edge Club between for food, local craft beer and wine.
Single tickets are still $10. Three, Five and Seven-Packs of tickets available for the bargain prices of $25, $40 and $55.
