Different style of comedy for madcap theatre troupe
Crossing Creek Community Theatre’s sixth staged show, Gladys in Wonderland, presented Feb. 16-20 at the Westbank Lions Community Hall, was a change in direction from the usual screwball comedies offered by the troupe.
Although a comedy, Gladys in Wonderland is dark, with the story centred around an 87year old woman’s encounter with death.
Gladys, played by Barb Kryski, is a hilarious sharp-tongued curmudgeon with a taste for cream-filled doughnuts, a wild imagination and a penchant for reading the obituaries.
When Mort, the angel of death played by Naomi Neukom, comes to take Gladys away, she refuses and Mort has to convince Gladys she is better off dead.
Gladys receives a string of visitors, including her brother Frank, played by John Erridge, who waxes rhapsodical on the many glasses of water he has in a day for his health; Denise Dean, an obnoxiously perky but condescending representative from Homey Meals For Homebounds played by Tanya Morrison, who brings a meal of liver on a bed of brown rice with blue Jello, and her best friend, Mildred, who warns Gladys of the dangers of not getting organized before her death.
Mort brings Gladys on a visit to a nursing home, where she meets Lillian, played by Linsae Cassidy, and Ethel, played by Nancy Somerville, an entertaining pair of inmates who give Gladys their opinion on life in the nursing home, exercise and crafts.
Ethel’s stray false eyelashes and Lillian’s sagging bosom provided the audience with some laughs.
While Gladys in Wonderland is funny, there are some hard truths about how our society treats mature adults who can’t do what they want, can’t eat what they want and are talked down to.
We were shocked to find that Colin Haddock, a staunch supporter of Crossing Creek Community Theatre, had died Feb. 8.
In her address to the audience before the performance, Leanne Reimer, Crossing Creek’s artistic director, noted Haddock had been in every Crossing Creek production.
“He would do anything for a laugh,” she said.
The troupe dedicated their run of Gladys in Wonderland to Haddock as they turned their sorrow into creative energy.
Haddock’s photo was on stage representing Gladys’s late husband, George.
To stay up to date regarding upcoming shows, auditions, volunteer opportunities or to be added to the mailing list, email crossingcreektheatre@gmail.com.