By Kerry J Newstead
PORT DOVER—When I was first asked to cover the opening of Lighthouse Festival Theatre’s summer season with “The New Canadian Curling Club,” I had some self-doubt about my personal biases.
I have seen some fantastic high school produced plays and musicals, and I’ve been to some large professional plays. I have also seen some productions that were flops, including literally having the sets fall.
So going to Port Dover to see a play, I thought this would be interesting.
The first character we meet is Stuart McPhail, a bit of a cantankerous fellow. Slowly the other characters come into the curling club; they’re all there to learn curling, and they’re all new Canadians.
Mike Chang is a student wanting to become a doctor; Fatima came to Canada as a refugee; Charmaine Bailey came up from the Caribbean Islands to marry her love; and Anoopjeet Singh came to find a better life.
While learning about curling, the players learn about each other. Eventually, they form a curling team named the New Canadians.
I was amazed at the quality of the acting and production of the show.
I asked Jane Spence, Artistic Director, why she picked this play.
“It is such a brilliantly written script. It’s a play that unites people. I believe audiences will love this action comedy that tackles some big issues in a very entertaining way,” she said.
She added, “It is a story about strangers coming together to achieve a common goal; in this case, learning to curl. The team they form impacts their journeys beyond the rink and helps build a community. It’s very funny, relevant, and moving.”
Playwright Mark Crawford added, “I had this idea to write a play about a group of people who come together with a common goal. I was interested in writing about newcomers to Canada. But not in big cities; in smaller communities. And I set it in a curling club, which seems like a very iconically small town Canadian place.”
Crawford praised Spence’s work on the play, and the casts’ performances.
In my humble opinion, I give the Lighthouse Festival Theatre a huge thumbs up; everyone should see this play. It may be laced with adult-focused content, but children should see this play as well, as a history and life lesson on how things were, and how they have and can change.
