‘Wildly funny’ Bedtime Stories
A “rollicking romp behind bedroom doors” combined with heartwarming humour leaving you happy and content is what you’ll experience at University Players’ end-of-season play, Bedtime Stories, which opens this weekend.
Director Gordon McCall says the feel-good production is a situation comedy with characters from every walk of life. Audiences will be entertained by six hilarious tales. They include the “wildly funny” lives of a radio shock jock, a responsible middle-aged couple, a woman visiting a dying man she snubbed years ago, two bumbling burglars, a rock star’s young groupie and an accident-prone stripper.
Norm Foster, who wrote the play, always manages to strike a chord with audiences, says McCall.
“I always say he’ll tickle your funny bone on the way to your heart,” says McCall, adding that Foster is probably Canada’s most prolific playwright. “His plays have a lot of humour in them based on situation and character, and they also have poignancy. There are always very touching moments of human interaction that we all recognize.”
McCall says with Foster’s plays, audiences are able to identify with what’s happening onstage very quickly. “These are all situations that we all haven’t necessarily been in, but we instantly empathize with them and think about what we’d do in that situation,” says McCall. “We instantly recognize all these things in our own lives..”
In Bedroom Stories, the characters are warm, engaging and lovable, says McCall. But they’re also quirky and eccentric, he adds. “The way they view the world is just slightly off centre, and that’s what makes us laugh.”
As audience members, you become engaged in the different dilemmas the characters face “but you don’t think for a minute that they’re going to turn out badly,” says McCall.
“We relax as audience members when watching Bedroom Stories. I can guarantee that the audience will have fun and feel warm and happy after seeing this play.”
Bedroom Stories runs March 31 through April 9 at Essex Hall Theatre on the University of Windsor campus. Wednesday through Saturday performances are at 8 p.m., and Saturday and Sunday matinees are at 2 p.m.
Tickets are $8 to $22 and can be purchased online at www.UniversityPlayers.com or by calling 519253-3000 ext. 2808. On April 2, a free “Talk Back” discussion with the actors will follow the performance.