Tyne Valley Players still have it

‘Moonlight and Applesauce’ opened April 30; remaining shows sold out

Jeff Noye has plucked a page from Mike Ford’s playbook.

For years, Ford has been the star of the Tyne Valley Players’ farce comedies. He still is, but Noye has upped the ante.

In this year’s production of “Moonlight and Applesauce,” Noye is exhibiting some of Ford’s slumped-shoulders, weak-kneed stage presence that has audiences returning year after year. Noye, as the dim-witted private investigator, Hamilton Barnes, gets his limited senses knocked out of him, and his slow-motion collapse on the Britannia Hall stage has audience members roaring with laughter.

In “Moonlight and Applesauce,” Noye is partnered up with Pam MacKinnon, who plays the hard-as-nails investigator Gertie Sims, his alterego.

The all-knowing Grandmother Barnes, who watches over the Barnes family with a certain degree of mischievous delight, is played by Marie Barlow.

That she is playing the grandmother is fitting, as “Moonlight and Applesauce” is Barlow’s 40th production with the Tyne Valley Players and, like Ford, she has amassed a large following.

Ford is as entertaining as ever, a simple twist of the neck accompanied by an empty stare, capable of drawing snickers.

The 13-member cast consists of a mix of new and veteran performers. Tracey Lauzon as Lilly the Lynx and Adam MacLennan as the officer are making their debut while Lisa Fitzgerald has taken on a key role in just her second production.

The rest of the veteran cast is made up of Shane Doran, Terry Doran, Cindy Gorrill, Steven Ellis, Janeen Grigg and Lisa MacDougall.

Even before their April 30 opening night, all nine of the Tyne Valley Players’ scheduled shows were sold out.

ERIC MCCARTHY/JOURNAL PIONEER Pam MacKinnon, as Gertie Sims, looks inquisitively at Jeff Noye, who plays Hamilton Barnes, in the Tyne Valley Players’ production of “Moonlight and Applesauce.”

ERIC MCCARTHY/JOURNAL PIONEER Lisa MacDougall, as Ellen Barnes, recovers from a fainting spell brought on by all the excitement in the Barnes household. In the Tyne Valley Players’ production of “Moonlight and Applesauce,” she plays the mother of the family who keeps everyone on...