From Cradle to Stage: An Evening of New One-Acts

Walterdale Playhouse

Student night (free for students) is May 13 at 8:00

Regular run:May 14 – 19, 8:00 pm, plus staged play readings on May 20 at 2:00 pm

Apocalypse, Saskatchewan and The Carrying carry on the Walterdale’s reputation for giving new plays a stage to showcase themselves on. This year’s production of From Cradle to Stage: An Evening of One-Acts  features only two plays, but these two plays span the range of zombies, comedy, self-exploration, and baggage with a mind of its own. 

The first, Apocalypse, Saskatchewan is the story of three retirees in a small-town coffee shop in a town where a zombie apocalypse is taking place. Contrary to what the title may imply, Director Giorgia Severini says, “it is a funny show.” Though the play is set in small town Saskatchewan, the characters are easily to relate to by anyone – even a (self-admitted) “lifelong city mouse” such as Severini – the characters are the same as you see in Tim Hortons all across Canada – sarcastic and suspicious observers of the world around them. “They are looking for an adventure. I hope the audience will have an adventure, but also get some laughs out of it… I think this play has two questions – one, are there really zombies? And two, do these guys realize what they’re getting themselves into?”

The Carrrying follows two sisters as they carry an ever-expanding collection of bags in an alternate reality. Similar to our own personal baggage, the bags that the sisters carry dictate the sisters voyage – whether they can stay the night in a particular place, or what direction they are allowed to go. According to director Mari Chartier, “the world of this play is unlike the world we live in… The audience gets a glimpse of this world, they get an idea of why they carry these bags, but they don’t really get, maybe, the full story.” But what is in the bags? And why do the sisters have to carry them? Is it metaphorical baggage, or is it something else in the alternate reality? Chartier doesn’t quite answer the question, saying instead that the play will be interpreted in any number of ways by the audience: “I hope the audience will really think about what this play means to them. We’ve thought a lot about what it means to us, and how it’s very simple – they have to carry these bags – but what it means to each of us was really different. I really hope the audience will come away with that too. There’s a lot to think about after watching this play.” 

In addition to the plays, From Cradle to Stage this year will also host play readings on May 20 at 2:00 pm. The play readings will be: The Loneliest Number (by Anne Marie Szucs, directed by Brooke Leifso), Mary! (by Melissa Morelli Lacroix, directed by John Trethart), and Magpies (by Mary-Ellen Perley, directed by John Trethart). Admission to the readings is free if a ticket to From Cradle to Stage is shown, or pay-what-you-can.

 Tickets for From Cradle to Stage are $12 – $16 and can be bought from Tix on the Square or at the door.

– Jenna Marynowski