For the first production of its 2024-25 season, the Peterborough Theatre Guild is presenting a double-header of two one-act plays: the world premiere of the history-based drama Ghost Story by Marni Walsh and the interactive farcical spoof How to Survive a Zombie Apocalypse by Ben Muir. The two plays run for 10 performances from September 20 to October 5
Ghost Story focuses on two famous historical Marys, who happen to be mother and daughter. Mary Wollstonecraft was an 18th-century British writer, philosopher, and advocate of women’s rights who wrote one of the earliest works of feminist philosophy, 1792’s A Vindication of the Rights of Woman. Her daughter, Mary Shelley (nee Gowan), is best known as the author of the 1818 Gothic novel Frankenstein; or, The Modern Prometheus, considered an early example of science fiction.
The two women never actually knew one another, as Mary Wollstonecraft died at the age of 38 only 11 days after giving birth to her daughter, Mary Wollstonecraft Gowan. Mary was raised by her father, political philosopher William Godwin, who provided her with a rich albeit informal education.
When Mary was a teenager, she met the Romantic poet and philosopher Percy Bysshe Shelley and, in 1816, the couple and Mary’s stepsister Claire Clairmont famously spent a summer with poet Lord Byron and his physician John William Polidori near Geneva in Switzerland. During the miserable weather, which was cold and rainy due to volcanic ash from an eruption in the Dutch East Indies the previous year, the group amused themselves with German ghost stories, which prompted Byron to propose that they each write their own ghost story.
Unable to come up with a ghost story, 18-year-old Mary was anxious for days until — after the group discussed the scientific phenomenon where muscles of dead creatures could be made to move when jolted with an electric current — she had a terrifying “waking dream” about a manufactured creature that is brought to life, leading her to write her famous novel.
In Ghost Story, Mary Shelley seeks advice at the grave site of her mother where, “the words of their works shine a light on their lives and the themes that still resonate today,” according to a description of the play.
“They’re both incredible women and their lives are just ripe with theatre,” says playwright Marni Walsh in a video for the Peterborough Theatre Guild. “Both Mary Shelley and her mother Mary Wollstonecraft were feminists. Both were very interested in the rights of all people, not just woman, but equality for all.”
“Mary Shelley had a very specific interest in science and the concern that science would go too far and too fast and that the world would suffer for it. These women warned us and their warnings are very pertinent right now. I think that we could learn from history and we should be listening to these voices once again.”
A resident of Melancthon in Dufferin County, Walsh has been an actor, director, and playwright for over 40 years. In 2020, she and Debra Hale founded Act 3 Theatre, a professional collective of women theatre artists over 55 which has performed original shows at Aki Theatre, Alumnae Theatre, Crest Theatre Green Room, the Toronto Fringe Festival, Theatre Collingwood, Orillia Opera House, and Theatre Orangeville.
Produced by Jen Eve, Ghost Story stars Carling Dulder, Lisa Guthro, Aimee Hindle, Millie Martin Thorne, and Julie Mereweather and is directed by Lee Bolton who, as well as being a director, playright, and teacher, has been an arts administrator including for the Peterborough Symphony Orchestra and the Nogojiwanong Indigenous Fringe Festival. She previously directed Walsh’s The Trial of Rosie McDougall at Toronto’s Red Sandcastle Theatre.
As Britain’s famous sketch comedy Monty Python would say, the second one-act play of the Peterborough Theatre Guild’s season-opening production is something completely different.
First staged in 2019, How to Survive a Zombie Apocalypse by British writer Ben Muir was a fringe festival hit and has since spawned a best-selling book, a top-ranking podcast series, a monthly magazine column, two sequels, and more.
In the play, leading zombie expert Dr. Dale Seslick of the School of Survival and his three inept assistants take audience members through an interactive seminar that not only teaches them how to survive the undead, but tests them to determine which person in the audience will be the ultimate survivor.
Produced by Marion Griffin and directed by Margaret Monis, the Peterborough Theatre Guild production features John Austin as Dr. Dale, the cool and collected seminar leader who is fluent in zombie survival lore and is never stumped for an answer, Andrea Lane as Judy O’Dea, Dr. Dale’s second in command who attempts to keep the rest of the team under control, James Burrell as Donald Straite, an older survivalist who has followed every conspiracy theory in the book and has attempted and succeeded many difficult training exercises, and Peter Symington as Tristen Granger, Dr. Dale’s nephew who has absolutely no idea what is going on during the seminar.
In the tradition of British farce, expect a lot of fast-paced wacky humour and, because the play is an interactive seminar, lots of audience participation.
Ghost Story and How to Survive a Zombie Apocalypse run at the Guild Hall at 364 Rogers Street in Peterborough’s East City from September 20 to October 3, with performances at 7:30 p.m. on September 20 and 21, 26 to 28, and October 3 to 5, with 2 p.m. Sunday matinee performances on September 22 and 29.
Assigned seating tickets are $30 for adults, $27 for seniors, and $20 for students and are available by calling 705-745-4211 or online at www.peterboroughtheatreguild.com.
For the September 21 and October 3 performances, the Peterborough Theatre Guild is offering a “bring a friend” discount where you can get a complimentary ticket with the purchase of one regular ticket by using the promo code FRIEND when ordering online.
kawarthaNOW is proud to be a media sponsor of the Peterborough Theatre Guild’s 2024-25 season.
