Engaging comedy has a ring to it Langley Players present an uproarious look at almost-married life
Langley Players
Maggie’s Getting Married
Date: Oct. 18-Nov. 17
Thursday to Sunday
Time: 8 p.m.
Sunday matinees 2 p.m.
Admission: $15
Thursday and Sunday, Seniors & Students $12
Venue: Langley Playhouse
4307 200 St.
Reservations: 604-534-7469
langleyplayers.com
Wedding bells will be ringing at the little Brookswood playhouse for the next four weeks, as the Langley Players present Maggie’s Getting Married.
“This is a fun piece,” said Walnut Grove’s Mary Renvall of the Norm Foster comedy she is directing.
Foster’s light comedies are always a crowd pleaser, she said.
Still, this season marked the second time Renvall had offered the script for consideration by the theatre company’s play reading committee.
Initially, the play was turned down.
But the group who looked at it this time out seemed to recognize in the story what Mary saw when she first discovered it in 2003.
“I could really relate to it,” she said.
“It’s about family.When the family gathers, it’s all hands on deck and things go on that guests aren’t privy to.”
In this case, the secret goings-on are happening in the Duncan family kitchen, where the entire show plays out, on the night before Maggie’s wedding.
Secrets are revealed and bombshells dropped by family members on one another.
“It’s farcical,” said Renvall.
“There’s a revolving door of characters coming into the kitchen.”
The audience never sees the guests, from whom all the unpleasantness is being hidden, she explained.
But they’re understood to be waiting in the living room throughout the evening’s shenanigans.
Mounting a show with a humour-filled script is a challenge in its own right, said Renvall, who produced last spring’s emotionally-charged drama Three Tall Women.
“With comedy, timing is huge — keeping the pace up,” said Renvall.
“There are a lot of subtle one-liners — it’s very well written,” she said of the script.
“And the actors have been magical in the way they’ve grasped the text,” she added.
“They have good sense of timing.”
Chemistry between the two leads shouldn’t be a problem for the director, at any rate.
Langley’s Dorothy Ludwig stars as Maggie, opposite her real-life husband, Cam, in the role of the groom-to-be, Russell MacMillan.
In addition to acting, Dorothy has also represented Canada in international air pistol and sport pistol competition.
An elementary school vice principal from Delta, Dave Williams, makes his theatrical debut as Maggie’s father, Tom Duncan.
He was “hooked into it” by Renvall, who cuts his hair, the director/stylist admitted with a laugh.
Surrey actress Lacey Elliot who co-hosts the program Driving Television, alongside Zack Spencer, plays Maggie’s older sister Wanda, who may have a slightly closer acquaintance with the groom than Maggie would care to consider.
Port Coquitlam’s Albano Carreiro, plays Axel Wilkie and Langley’s Wendy Cook rounds out the cast as Maggie’s mom.
Maggie’s Getting Married opens this Thursday and runs until Nov. 17.
Renvall recommends that anyone who hopes to see the play reserve their seats soon.
“This is a real crowd pleaser. It will sell out,” she said.
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