After a year-long hiatus due to government funding cuts, Western Edge Theatre returns with a four-play season, beginning Sept. 21 with Copper Thunderbird.
Following that is The Dishwashers, by Governor General’s Award-winning playwright Morris Panych. Set in the basement of an expensive restaurant, the play features three working-class heroes: Dressler, the philosophizing team boss; Moss, an indeterminately old guy; and the newcomer, Emmett. When the latter decides they need to unionize, the trio confronts that messiest dish of all – change. Runs Oct. 28-29, and Nov. 4-6.
In 2012, the company presents Tennessee Williams’s classic play The Glass Menagerie, about faded southern belle Amanda Wingfield, her demure, hobbled daughter Laura, and their “Gentleman Caller.” The play, featuring Lorna McLellan as Amanda, runs Feb. 10-11, 17-19.
The season concludes with Dry the Rain, by Mark Stubbings. His characters Agnes and Clayton are the liveliest couple in their retirement home, but in this unsentimental comedy-drama, that doesn’t make them either “feisty” or “lovable.” It is the fully staged piece in New Waves, a festival of staged readings of new plays by B.C. playwrights, which runs March 23 to April 1.
All plays are featured at Nanaimo Centre Stage, 25 Victoria Rd. Please visit www.westernedgetheatre.org for more information.