Community theatre members brave ice, wind and snow because ‘the play’s the thing’

February 13, 2015 · 0 Comments

The cast of Tipling Stage Company’s upcoming production of But Why Bump Off Barnaby? converge on Grace Tipling Hall every Wednesday and Sunday to rehearse.
The play being put on by the Shelburne theatre company is a lunatic mystery-farce, featuring a murderer on the loose, a mystifying limerick, secret passageways, revolving doors and poisoned drinks.
Rehearsing a play in January and February is not for the faint-hearted. Cast members make their way from Markdale, Grand Valley, Barrie, Mono, Hornings Mills and Orangeville without fail to join those who live only a stone’s throw from the theatre and spend three or four hours hard at work perfecting their performances.
“It’s true,” laughed the play’s director Jean Jardine Miller, who lives just down the road from the theatre herself. “I’ve offered to cancel several times when I certainly wouldn’t want to be driving myself, but everybody is always determined to get to the theatre and rehearse. The play is a very complicated one, for both cast and crew, so it’s wonderful to be working with such an enthusiastic group of actors.”
The play by Rick Abbot (a pen name of the prolific Chicago playwright Jack Sharkey) is set in an English country mansion, complete with butler and maid. Family members, who have not seen each other for years, arrive for a house party a dark and stormy summer evening. Almost immediately, the family loser gets himself murdered and his totally inept relatives bungle hilariously as they grapple with the mystifying clue he leaves behind, along with those secret passageways and the poisoned drinks. Sounds like a lot of work? Yes, but Shelburne’s community theatre is pledged to provide area audiences with outstanding productions at affordable prices. Everybody loves what they do anyway!
But Why Bump Off Barnaby opens March 27 at Grace Tipling Hall. More information is available on the Tipling Stage Company’s website at www.tiplingstagecompany.com