About the Author: Now retired, Deb spent her career writing - most recently producing newsletters and an alumni magazine at the University of Calgary. Previously, she was editor-in-chief of up!, WestJet’s inflight magazine. She’s been a web editor, newspaper journalist, CBC travel columnist, and freelancer.
Beneath the wild catharsis of comedy and loaded with sneaky surprises, next week’s One-Act Play Festival (running Feb. 27-March 1) will flip you from whooping with laughter to pondering life’s perplexities. If rehearsals are any indication, the three-play lineup, produced by Pine Tree Players, is provocative, clever and — if that’s not enough — promises to bolster your roster of Dad jokes (no kidding).
Although this one-act festival is not an annual item on Pine Tree Players’ roster, the company has a soft spot for one-punch plays as its very first production, The Bad Children (1978), was, indeed, a one-act play. And for fans who can’t get enough of this fast and lean format — this year’s trio of 30-minute plays will head to the Foothills Regional One Act Play competition in High River at the end of March.
“But see them first at the Miners Union Hall,” says Jen Tweddell, president of the board of directors for Pine Tree Players, “and you’ll likely recognize some of the 34 people on stage — many of whom are juggling multiple roles.” For those unfamiliar with one-act plays, they are often the perfect vehicle to explore and test something new, whether that’s as a director, an actor, an audience member — and sometimes, sometimes, that does mean all of the above!
In Waiting for the End of the World by Johan Shanahan and directed by Sherry Thompson, we find the Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse in a park waiting to usher in the start of Armageddon. Having acted in three one-act plays and umpteen other Pine Tree productions, this is Thompson’s second time directing a one-act play and in Waiting, what she loved most was the challenge of exploring the existential theme of mortality and the human condition in the face of the unknown. “We like to think we know what is going on behind the scenes, cosmically speaking” she says, cryptically, “but do we really?”
Slightly sinister but not a black comedy, per se, “it is, however, one of the darker shades of grey,” says Thompson, explaining this puzzle of a play which they’ve been rehearsing since late November.
On a far lighter note is Dad Joke Intervention by Wade Bradford and directed by Ron Deans. Dads have, of course, been telling bad jokes forever, but only here in an old-fashioned living room with an old-fashioned dad has a true intervention ever been staged. Absurd, side-splitting, cringe-worthy — this funny little play lets the audience groan and feel “like they are in on the jokes,” grins Ella Bagshaw who plays a youth in this short comedy. These days, what is keeping Bagshaw up at night is her fear of a complete breakdown where she winds up laughing with the audience.
“Honestly, trying not to laugh at the jokes is really difficult,” she admits. “Somehow, even the worst jokes and puns seem far funnier when you’re supposed to keep a straight face or act annoyed. Will I be able to hide my laughter . . .”
The evening’s final installment is Sya Sen’s Mudflap Girl, directed by Candise McMullin, which looks at the 1970 phenomenon of a woman’s silhouetted image appearing on the mudflaps of trucks. This play is a salute to that story and the interplay between the actors, crackles.
Not since 2022 has Pine Tree Players produced a one-act festival and never has the lineup been as diverse or inventive. From drama to comedy, from a period piece to musing on existential matters, this trifecta of 30-minute plays — and we don’t say this often — offers something for everyone. Where else can you tumble into three different worlds that offer such brief and self-contained snapshots on life?
Showtimes: Feb. 27-March 1 | 7:30 p.m. to 9:30 p.m.
Where: The Canmore Miners’ Union Hall | 738 7 St. Canmore
Tickets: $25
To purchase tickets, visit: https://pinetreeplayers.com/events/one-act-plays/
Questions or concerns, contact: [email protected]
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