The Importance of Being Earnest (May 6-22, 2004)

A Comedy by Oscar Wilde

This masterpiece is probably the most famous of all comedies! It revolves wittily around the most ingenious case of manufactured mistaken identity ever put into a play. Jack Worthing is madly in love with the honourable Gwendolyn Fairfax, daughter of the indomitable Lady Bracknell and cousin to his longtime friend and man-about-town, Algernon Moncrieff. Jack enlists Algie’s aid in winning the hand of the fair Gwendolyn, but in so doing, discloses the existence of his excessively pretty ward, Cecily Cardew, who, much to Jack’s displeasure, immediately bewitches Algie. Unfortunately, neither of the two young ladies can abide the thought of allying themselves with any man who is not called Ernest! What to do?

And what will be the solution to everyone’s plight? A handbag!

Our Town (March 11-27, 2004)

A Drama by Thornton Wilder

Winner of the Pulitzer Prize, Our Town is one of the most popular and enduring pieces of twentieth century American theatre! This classic depicts life in a New Hampshire village in 1901. A day in the lives of these good people and all the inherent human passions are shown to us. Love and marriage, success and failure, triumph and joy, death and sorrow ! And we come to find that the past cannot be re-lived. One of the sagest, warmest, and most deeply human scripts to have come out of the American theatre!

The Glass Menagerie (January 15-31, 2004)

A Drama by Tennessee Williams

One of the most famous plays of the modern theatre and a drama of great tenderness, charm and beauty! Amanda is a faded, tragic remnant of Southern gentility who lives in poverty in a dingy St. Louis apartment with her son, Tom and her daughter, Laura. Amanda strives to give meaning and direction to her life and the lives of her children, though her methods are ineffective and irritating. Tom, to escape his mother’s nagging, seeks solace in alcohol and the movies; Laura, crippled and insecure, withdraws more and more. The crux of the action comes when a nice, ordinary fellow is invited to dinner as a “gentlemen caller” for Laura. Laura’s world shines, but unfortunately only briefly. The world of illusion which Amanda and Laura have striven to create in order to make life bearable, collapses about them.

The Three Musketeers (November 20 – December 6, 2003)

A Comedy by Peter Raby, adapted from the Alexandre Dumas novel

A rousing, rollicking and eminently stage-worthy version of the classic “swashbuckler,” first presented by Canada’s Stratford Festival. Everyone is familiar with the renowned adventures of D’Artagnan and his three fellow musketeers, Athos, Porthos and Aramis, as they fight for king and country with frequent detours involving wine, women and song. The entire panoply of action is captured here with brilliant inventiveness and theatricality; the devious trickery of Cardinal Richelieu and Milady de Winter; the sad plight of the beauteous Constance Bonacieux; attempted assassinations; plots and counterplots; and the final triumph of virtue over the forces of evil. Moving swiftly from scene to scene, the play captures all the colour and excitement of the original serialized novel, and provides a memorable and unashamedly romantic experience for audiences of all ages!

Night Must Fall (September 18 – October 4, 2003)

A Thriller by Emlyn Williams

It is no secret that Danny, a bellhop who arrives at the Bramson bungalow, has already murdered one woman and there is little doubt that he will soon murder another, the aged owner of the house. He carefully insinuates himself into her affections while preventing her niece, who has guessed his history, from giving him away. Although the niece firmly believes she hates him, she becomes fascinated with this dashing young assassin. Danny is a self-centred psychopath with no feelings and a vast imagination. For his own edification he is perpetually acting the part of a murderer and is only unhappy because he cannot share his secret with the world!

She Stoops to Conquer (May 1-17, 2003)

A Farce by Oliver Goldsmith

“Witty . Charming! . Entertaining!”

A wonderful rollicking Restoration comedy! Eighteenth century England comes to life in this riotously funny comedy of manners. Two well-to-do young gentlemen, Marlow and Hastings, mistake the baronial country home of Squire Hardcastle for a roadside inn. As they meet the family so they treat them as employees of a common public house. The ensuing situations become hilarious. In retaliation, Kate, the beautiful and clever daughter of the house, disguises herself as a servant, and in so-doing becomes a true conqueror when she acquires a handsome and wealthy young husband.

An Inspector Calls (March 6-22, 2003)

A Thriller by J.B. Priestley

“A psychologically adept work and a most engaging play!”

Though ostensibly a remarkably clear and effective drama, an air of mystic unreality underlies An Inspector Calls. When a young girl commits suicide in an English industrial city, an eminently respectable British family is subject to a routine enquiry in connection with the death. An inspector calls to interrogate the family. All are to some degree implicated, but what was a friendly and closely-knit family at the beginning of the evening is reveled as selfish, self-centered and cowardly before the night is over. And who was the “inspector”? Why was no suicide reported to the police? How did he know?

Sweet Bird of Youth (January 9-25, 2003)

A Drama by Tennessee Williams

“Once again, a bolt of thunder has been hurled by Williams, and the theatre reverberates to its roar!”

The Princess, an aging motion picture actress in flight from her latest screen disaster, picks up Chance Wayne, a young hustler. Taking advantage of her drunkenness, and his own youth and good looks he lures her to the Southern town of his birth to see a young girl with whom he has had an affair and still loves. He hopes to use the Princess to promote a movie career for himself and his girl. What Chance does not know is that he has unwittingly infected the girl. Boss Finley, political despot and father of the girl, and his sadistic son and toadies lay in wait for his return and their revenge. Chance is deserted by his patroness, and far worse, his youth!