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(Posted
Sept. 24)
Bytowne Chorus adopts country western theme
for upcoming concert
By Fred Sherwin
Orleans Online
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Vintage Stock Theatre's latest 'Shades of the
Evening' production Quarantine features
Hayden Smith and Erin MacDonald in the principal
roles of Harry Connors and Margie Hemstead.
Fred Sherwin/Photo |
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If
you love traditional country and western music and are
a fan of old western musicals like "Paint Your Wagon"
and "Oklahoma!" then you'll love the upcoming
concert being put on by the Bytowne Beat Chorus.
The
Bytowne Beat Chorus is a local singing group that was
formed six years ago by a group of women who shared an
appreciation for singing four part harmonies in the traditional
barbershop style.
Today,
the chorus consists of 35 members led by musical director
Pam Warkentin. They sing competitively, as a member of
Sweet Adelines International, and they perform throughout
the region at various events and locations.
Last
year, they put on their first fall concert in front of
a sold-out audience. This year, they're back again with
an even more ambitious production that will have your
toes tapping and more than a few people singing along
to classics like "any Man of Mine" and "Hey,
Good Lookin' ".
The
story line revolves around Lawanda Darlene, a rodeo queen
from Balzac, Alberta. After discovering there is more
to life than quarterhorses and barrel-racing, Lawanda
meets Billy who is performing in a Calgary saloon with
a trveling barbershop quartet.
The
two hit it off right away, but their budding romance is
snuffed out before it even has a chance to blossom when
Billy has to travel to the next city.
After
her chance meeting with Billy, Lawanda's thoughts soon
turn to her first love -- a big, brwany Brahma bull rider
named Johnny.
As
fate would have it, the two run into each other at Pete's
Poker Palace in Edmonton. But much to Lawanda's surprise,
Johnny is married to a ravishing redhead. The hope of
one day rekindling her love with Johnny is over; "crushed
like a cow turd in the middle of the arena" is how
the narrator puts it.
Ever
the romantic, Lawanda still holds out hope that she might
one day run into Billy again. Months go by before the
two are finally reunited at the saloon where they first
met.
This
time Billy sticks around, and the two lovebirds get married
and the couple lives happilty ever after.
Quarantine
takes place in Cumberland Village in the mid-1930s.
Harry Connors has returned to his birthplace after seven
years of exile in Toronto where he studied medicine.
In
the opening scene he runs into an old friend named Lester,
who is now married and has two kids. The two men play
a guessing game in which Harry tries to guess who Lester
married. When Harry can't come up with the right answer,
Lester tells him it's Gladys Montgomery, a name which
appears to open up an old wound.
During
a moment alone, Harry talks about being a kid and putting
pennies on the train tracks so they would get squished
flat and then writing their names and date on the flattened
surface. It's then that the audience first here's the
name Margie, who was a childhood friend of Harry's.
In
the second scene outside the church, the audience is introduced
to several of the townspeople including Gladys Montgomery,
Mrs. Montgomery and Clara MacKinnon who has been sent
to Cumberland to live with Margie and her family during
an outbreak of small pox in Ottawa.
A
group of ladies led by Mrs. Montgomery want to prevent
Clara from going to school for fear that she might "infect"
the other students.
It
is during the second scene that the audience is given
a crash course on diphtheria which was referred to as
the "Strangling Angel" in the early part of
20th century when it claimed thousands of lives before
a vaccine was made readily available in 1924. The disease
attacked the upper respiratory tract and mostly affected
children, thus the "Strangling Angel" reference.
It
also during the second scene that a young Margie tells
the audience that her dream is to explore the world and
maybe one day learn to fly. She also is the victim of
a nagging cough which she blames on a sore throat.
In
the third scene, which continues the series of flash backs,
Harry and several of his boyhood friends have just stolen
a couple of apples from Morten's apple orchard. As they
sit and enjoy the fruit of their labour they talk about
diphtheria and small pox and the merits of a mandatory
vaccination for public school students.
Some
of the boys parents are against the vaccinations while
the boys themselves comment that they would rather have
their arms swollen from the small pox vaccine than to
die form the disease itself.
The
fourth scene outside Margie's house is the most powerful
scene of the play. As the scene opens a public health
official hammers a sign in the front yard which reads
"Carrier of diphtheria".
Margie
has been quarantined while being treated with anti-toxins.
Despite her condition, she manages to sneak out of the
house to see Harry. Before she became ill, the school
was working on a time capsule and Margie had added a handkerchief
sachet with her name embroidered on it to the collection
only to find out that it had been removed and burned for
fear it might have been covered in germs.
Filled
with a desire to be remembered, she hands Harry her lucky
squished penny which she had made as a young child and
turned into a necklace. The young man promises to somehow
sneak it into the time capsule and the two kiss before
parting.
As
fate would have it, however, they are scene and overheard
by Gladys and a friend who run and tell her mother.
In
the fifth scene outside the schoolhouse, it's decided
that Harry can no longer return to class for fear that
he may now be a carrier and the necklace can not go in
the time capsule.
The
majority of the scene is taking up with a debate over
the merits of the small pox vaccine which is produced
using cows. Mrs. Montgomery and her supporters refer to
it as poison and unnatural. It is only after the school's
teacher Mrs. Lawson recalls of how her own sister died
of diphtheria, that several of Mrs. Montgomery's supporters
decide to err on the side of caution.
Mrs.
Montgomery will not have anything of it, however, and
she leaves with her children rather than subject them
to the vaccination.
Which
brings me to the final scene in which the audience learns
of Margie's fate and how Harry has held on to her squished
penny necklace all these years.
As
someone who has seen every installment of the "Shades
of the Evening" series for the past eight or nine
years, Quarantine ranks as my absolute favourite.
It's compelling, thought-provoking and highly emotional.
A big reason for that is the script. But a script is only
a collection of words and scenes. It takes a talented
group of actors to breath life into it and turn it into
something unforgettable.
Fortunately,
Quarantine is blessed with a talented group of
local young actors, starting with Hayden Smith and Erin
MacDonald who play Harry Connors and Margie.
Smith
and MacDonald are both products of the Orléans
Young Players theatre program and their scene together
outside Margie's home is truly magical.
The
rest of the cast is a mixture of Vintage Stock Theatre
veterans like Dan Smythe and Ian McGregor, who play Dr.
Henderson and The Reverend, and relative newcomers like
Reid DeLong and Kim Riley who play Lester Briggs and Mrs.
Church.
Among
the performances that stood out for me were those of Gwen
Colley who plays Mrs. Montgomery and Amber Boucher as
Mrs. Lawson.
The
rest of the cast includes Tyler Smith as Daniel Gordon,
Sydney Smith as Lucy Church, Kirsten Mainwood as Gladys
Montgomery, Maya Lemaire as Clara MacKinnon, Gisele Rivet
as Mrs. Hempstead, Mora Torres as Mrs. McCaffery, Micheline
Mathon as Mrs. Connors, Sam Loveridge as Ben Montgomery,
and David Elliot and Sophia Hullin as the young Harry
and Margie. Freddy Cyr-Michaud and Karine Longpr� also
contributed the music and songs.
Writing
the play was a personal journey for Susan Flemming whose
own father was quarantined with the disease as a young
boy. Much of the historical context of the play was supplied
by lifelong Cumberland resident Jeannie Smith whose uncle
died from diphtheria when he was nine.
Flemming
and Hunt-Stephens spent hours in the City of Ottawa archives
pouring over old public health records, newspaper clippings
and city council minutes to give the play as much authenticity
as possible.
Quarantine
continues at the Cumberland Heritage Village Museum,
Saturday Sept. 24 at 8 p.m. and then again on Oct. 1 and
2. The play is performed entirely outdoors, so audience
members are asked to dress appropriately for the weather.
(This
story was made possible thanks to the generous support of
our local business partners.)
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