PORT DOVER—For playwright Sophia Fabiilli, seeing her show, Liars at a Funeral, performed on stage at Lighthouse Theatre in Port Dover is something of a homecoming.
While Fabiilli is now an accomplished writer, she started out as an actor. Her first ever professional performance was on the Lighthouse stage in 2011.
PORT DOVER—Sophia Fabiilli (centre) had her professional acting debut in the 2011 Lighthouse Festival production of When The Reaper Calls as Officer McGuire. —Submitted photos. 
PORT DOVER—Sophia Fabiilli is returning to Lighthouse as a playwright, bringing her show Liars at a Funeral to the stage where her career began. —Submitted photos.
“I remember being absolutely thrilled that I’d booked it. It felt like a really big deal. I played a young cop in this spooky murder mystery called When the Reaper Calls. I was the youngest person in the cast. Derek Ritschel was directing, and I was just in awe of all the other actors,” recalled Fabiilli.
“Derek was incredibly kind and welcoming, and I learned so much. I only had a handful of scenes, so I spent a lot of time backstage watching the rest of the show from the wings. I loved being in the dressing rooms and just feeling like a professional actor for the first time.”
Fabiilli studied theatre and drama at both Sheridan College and the University of Toronto before launching her career.
It was around 2015 when her interests began to shift from the stage to the keyboard. She said, “I’d been dabbling in producing and thought maybe I could write something myself. The original idea was to create a vehicle that I could produce and act in to showcase myself as an actor.”
That led her to the Toronto Fringe Festival, a sort of mecca for emerging artists developing new works. In that first year, Fabiilli wrote, produced, and starred in an adaptation of George Bernard Shaw’s classic The Philanderer, renamed The Philanderess.
“Through that experience, something really clicked. I’d always been interested in writing, but I hadn’t really thought of myself as a writer until then,” said Fabiilli. “It also made me realize how much I wanted to create really strong female roles, which has always been important to me.”
She credited her acting experience with helping her through the writing process, noting previous experience in rehearsal rooms, workshopping material, and seeing what works as helpful tools in her arsenal.
Liars at a Funeral is one of four shows Fabiilli has written since then, with two more on the way.
The show focuses on a family coming together to mourn the loss of their father.
“They’re all carrying different baggage and different perspectives on who he was, and they have to navigate grief, old resentments, misunderstandings, and ultimately try to figure out whether reconciliation is actually possible,” said Fabiilli. “Even though it deals with some heavy subject matter, it’s very funny. I think that’s kind of how life works. Some of the funniest moments happen in the middle of difficult situations, especially with family.
“I really wanted to create a juicy family comedy-drama,” said added. “The central question became: How does a family that’s become so estranged find its way back to some sort of reconciliation? How does a deeply dysfunctional family become just a little more functional?”
Fabiilli believes laughter helps open people up emotionally, allowing a story to resonate in ways it might not otherwise.
“If an audience laughs together, they’re more willing to go somewhere deeper afterward. I love stories that can make people laugh one minute and then unexpectedly move them the next,” she said. “People often come up afterward and tell me it reminded them of their own family, or that it made them think about someone they’ve lost. Those conversations are really meaningful.”
Returning to the stage where it all started for Fabiilli is a special moment for her.
“There’s something very full-circle about it. Lighthouse was where I got my start professionally, so returning with a play I’ve written feels incredibly rewarding. It almost feels like coming home,” she shared.
“To have my own play in the lineup is kind of surreal. It’s very cool, and I’m really grateful to Lighthouse because they’ve made a big difference in my career. To come back as a playwright is super special.”
Liars at a Funeral opens on the LIghthouse Festival Theatre stage in Port Dover on Thursday, July 30, 2026.
