Summer theatre in the Kawarthas wouldn’t be summer theatre in the Kawarthas without a Norm Foster play at Bobcaygeon’s Globus Theatre. After all, Canada’s most-produced playwright cut the ribbon when Globus Theatre moved into the Lakeview Arts Barn 19 years ago, and the professional theatre company has staged one of his plays almost every year since.
This summer is no exception, as Globus Theatre brings Foster’s touching comedy The Ladies Foursome — described as “a girl-power comedy with balls” — to the Lakeview Arts Barn from August 14 to 24.
First produced in 2014 at Morrisburg’s Upper Canada Playhouse, the play is a much-requested sequel to Foster’s 1988 play The Foursome, which was performed at Globus Theatre in 2015. Like that play, which followed four male college friends as they played 18 holes of golf, The Ladies Foursome does the same with four female characters — but that’s where the similarity ends.
In The Ladies Foursome, three golfing friends — Connie, Margot, and Tate — hit the links in honour of their late friend (and fourth) Cathy the day after her funeral, where they are joined for the first time by Dory, an old friend of Cathy’s who they’ve never previously met. Over the course of 18 holes, secrets, surprises, and confessions are revealed as the women discuss love, sex, children, and everything in between.
Writing The Ladies Foursome was a more challenging task for Foster than writing the play that inspired it.
“I wanted the characters of the women in this play to ring true,” Foster said at a media conference for the play’s 2014 premiere in Morrisburg. During the course of re-writes and rehearsals for the premiere, Foster said he would ask the actresses, “Would a woman really say something like this?”
Based on the critical acclaim for the play, they really would. The Encore Sun Journal said “The witty dialogue in this show is rapid-fire and right on target” and one reviewer called it “Sex and the City, but on a golf course.”
Globus Theatre’s production of The Ladies Foursome stars Sarah Quick as Connie (“Connie’s 18th hole rallying cry of a speech was one of the funniest things I’ve heard in a long time,” said one reviewer of a production of the play), with Elana Post as Margot, Melissa Morris at Tate, and Linette Doherty as Dory.
As well as being Globus Theatre’s artistic director, Quick is an playwright and actor who is no stranger to the Lakeview Arts Barn stage, having starred in many past Globus productions including Sexy Laundry, Hurry Hard, and Shirley Valentine. Post has appeared in Globus Theatre’s production of Hurry Hard and Lighthouse Festival Theatre’s production of Sugar Road. Both Melissa Morris and Linette Doherty are newcomers to Globus, with Morris known for Watershed Festival’s Lancashire Lass and Doherty for Shaggypup Production’s Menopause The Musical 2.
“I love how this play encapsulates female friendships and everything that ladies, when they get together, talk about,” Quick says in a media release. “The three actresses that I’m working alongside are fantastic, and we’ve been having so much fun in rehearsals.”
The Ladies Foursome runs for 11 performances from August 14 to 24, with 8 p.m. shows from Wednesday, August 14th to Saturday, August 17th, and again from Tuesday, August 20th to Saturday, August 24th. There will also be two 2 p.m. matinee performances on Saturday, August 17th and Thursday, August 22nd. An optional dinner is available before the evening performances.
“I love the fact that this year there are groups of girlfriends and groups of ladies golfing foursomes coming to see the show,” Quick says. “The Ladies Foursome is great for men too, of course, especially if they’ve ever wanted to know what women gossip about over 18 holes of golf.”
Tickets are $50 for the show only or $100 for dinner and the show, and are available by calling the box office at 705-738-2037 (toll free at 1-800-304-7897) or online at globustheatre.com.
