Fort Frances Little Theatre will kick off its 1998-99 season next Friday with Vancouver playwright Morris Panych’s “Vigil” taking to the stage at the Ukrainian Hall.
Director Cathy Richards described the two-person play as an “absurd comedy about aging, death, and learning to love.” It stars Little Theatre veterans Paul Elliott and Wendy Judson.
Elliott plays a bank teller who, after receiving a letter from his dying aunt, played by Judson, leaves his job and goes to wait by her death bed.
Hence, the vigil behind “Vigil.”
“The weeks turn into months and the months turn into years,” Richards said, noting the play follows the two characters’ antics during the waiting period.
“It’s funny but you’ll cry,” she said. “We’ll be serving drinks and tissues every night.”
The play runs Sept. 25-27 and again Oct. 3-5, with dinner theatres on the Friday and Saturday nights and a matinee on the Sundays.
Doors for the dinner theatre, which costs $28 each, open at 6 p.m., with the curtain rising at eight. The matinees, which start at 2 p.m., cost $10 each.
Richards noted this is the first time Little Theatre tried running a production over two weekends. And this is the first time the Ukrainian Hall has been used for a major production.
“We said we were going to try it and we did,” she said. “We’re going to be breaking some new ground here.”
Rehearsals have been going well so far, Richards noted. And with only a little over a week until show time, she believed her cast will be ready.
“The whole crew is wonderful,” she said. “It’s so nice working with a small cast. There’s not too many schedules to work around.”
Advance tickets can be bought at “Cripes It’s a Castle” on Scott Street. It’s rushed seating so Richards recommended people come early.
“It’s a very different and Canadian play,” she said. “It’s for everyone, young and old.”
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