FROM FERTILE SOIL, THREE PLAYS SPRING FORTH FOR THEATRE FANS

I was chatting on the weekend with a family member from out of town who found it remarkable that there were three plays going on at the same time in Saskatoon. Three. All on the same weekend.

I guess I take it for granted. There always seems to be a play going on.

But yeah, now that he mentioned it, three professional productions at once for a city our size does seem noteworthy.

Persephone Theatre is nearing the end of its run of Shear Madness. It’s a unique play, despite having been around for almost 40 years.

The first half sets up a comic murder mystery. The second involves the audience. You can ask questions about things that don’t add up, formulate a theory on whodunit and vote on the most likely perpetrator. The cast has to react to the questions, demanding some quick wits on their part. Knowing that each night is different is part of the fun.

Persephone’s cast, which features two local actors and one originally from Saskatoon, is great, the standout being Robbie Towns as an extremely colourful stylist. Shear Madness has been held over twice, so audiences must be into it.

If you can’t get a ticket to that, Live Five is heading into the closing weekend of Theatre Naught’s Les Liaisons dangereuses, which couldn’t be more different in tone or intent.

It’s set in pre-Revolutionary France among the aristocracy which has made a game of seduction, using sex to manipulate and settle scores. It is, as the reviewer (me!) said, wickedly good.

The third play is Dogbarked at Dancing Sky Theatre, a professional theatre in Meacham, 45 minutes east of Saskatoon. As co-founder Angus Ferguson was saying on the weekend, putting a theatre with 100 seats in a place with a population of 85 isn’t the greatest business plan.

And yet Dancing Sky is in its 20th season.

Dogbarked is as Saskatchewan as drought, grasshoppers and hail — but considerably more fun. It’s about a pair of bachelor farmers trying to save themselves from irrelevance. They name their town Dogbarked and hope tourists show up. What they get is a semi-stranded couple of strangers from Toronto. It’s about as Saskie as you can get. All four actors are local and the writer, James O’Shea, is originally from Saskatoon.

He lives in B.C. now, but we won’t hold that against him. The play is full of laughs, beer, true observations of human nature, beer, great acting (like Joshua Beaudry in one of the best performances of the year) and beer.

One message in Dogbarked is don’t judge people on where they come from.

The same is true of Saskatoon’s artistic community. We’re small and easily overlooked, but there’s stuff going on here, really good stuff, right now.

When I think of the talent and dedication of the 21 actors in those three plays, not to mention the production teams around them, it’s inspiring. I’ve been covering them a long time and I’m still not quite sure how they do it, either artistically, logistically or financially.

There’s just so much talent there, and I know they aren’t paid even close to what they’re worth. And truthfully, many can’t get by and are forced to leave the profession.

The challenge for us, the audience, is to not take that talent for granted.

Three plays at the same time is a sign of a healthy artistic ecosystem. But it’s a fragile one as well. The talent is there, but it’s up to us to support it.

When I think of the talent and dedication of the 21 actors in those three plays, not to mention the production teams around them, it’s inspiring.