The Peace Players are now done their season of plays and musicals but finished up their last show on Saturday night at Athabasca Hall in Peace River. The show was written by playwright Norm Foster, the most produced playwright in Canada. Dave Cambridge was the director for the production that was about: “A furniture store owner is having an affair with the local minister’s wife. The situation becomes complicated when the minister comes home unexpectedly. An intricate web of deceit is hilariously exposed as the police, members of the parish and the women’s auxiliary all get involved. ”
The small cast of six actors were Alix Cartwright as Monica Lloyd, Michael Stalker as Peter Kramer, Dale Shewchuck as Reverend Lloyd, Mackenzie Bobee as Diane Gillis, Jody Bekvich as Carolyn Cavanaugh and Dillon Pare as Roy Cavanaugh (Chief of Police).
Alix Cartwright as Monica Lloyd and Michael Stalker as Peter Kramer
The first half of the show set the scene for the characters while laying out characters that would follow in the second half. The characters of Monica and Peter would take centre stage through out the first half with Diane coming into play heavily in the middle of the first half. The comedy was on full display from the start as we come first find out about Peter’s paranoia about the affair with the reverend’s wife, and we start to see the truth about the adulterous ways of Mrs. Lloyd. The reverend’s wife has a whole side to her you wouldn’t expect and what her actions may have gotten her a lot more than she was bargaining for especially with her lover Peter. The first half really was fun to see all the interactions taking part on different sides of the stage with the actress not being featured staying in full character throughout until it was brought back to them.
(Left) Mackenzie Bobee as Diane Gillis and (Right) Jody Bekevich as Carolyn Cavanaugh
In the second half of the show picks up the next day as we get to see and hear some characters like Carolyn Cavanaugh, who is in many ways what you would expect from how she is kind of described by Diane in the first half, as well as her husband Roy who is the chief of police. The second half is littered with comedy between Peter and Diane with Carolyn’s personality in full force coming and going stealing the show in the process. The second half is where we really understand the depths of Mrs. Lloyd’s ways and just how quickly people want to move on the events that take place in the intermission. The ability of the cast to not break character was truly amazing as it must’ve been extremely hard not to at some points. Filled with intriguing stories and fun banter between all the characters the second half really put the peddle down and never took the foot off the gas.
The show was funny from start to finish with characters having their talents on full display with Alix (Monica Lloyd) standing out in the first half with her suggestive ways or Jody (Carolyn Cavanaugh) with the strong accent that left everyone in stitches every time she took part in the second half of the production. Every member of the cast had the crowd in laughing as most of them discover a very important similarity that ties them all together.
This being the third Peace Players production I have taken in and I do have to say it was my favourite. The only thing I wish was that I saw it last weekend so I could let you know how truly good it was in case you were now wanting to see it. I cannot wait to see what they put out next season.
– Everett
