Millbrook’s 4th Line Theatre has announced the outdoor theatre company’s 33rd season with two world premieres next summer, including a historical play by Peterborough’s Megan Murphy that will be part of the 200th commemoration of the arrival of the first of the Peter Robinson Irish settlers in 1825.
The season will begin on Canada Day with the world premiere of The Housekeeper, a mystery romance written by Ian McLachlan and Robert Winslow. Directed by Winslow, the play tells the story of a mysterious woman named Eleanor Gwyn who arrives in Millbrook in 1955 looking for a job, and being the housekeeper for widower Walter White might be the perfect fit. Gwyn is hoping to make a fresh start in life and to find a place to call home, but is Millbrook ready for her and her progressive world views?
The Housekeeper is the fourth in a series of plays by McLachlan and Winslow about the Barnardo children — 2005’s Doctor Barnardo’s Children (restaged in 2006 and 2014), 2014’s Wounded Soldiers, and 2019’s Carmel being the others — and their impact on Canadian culture and history.
Between 1870 and 1930, Irish philanthropist Dr. Thomas John Barnardo sent thousands of destitute and orphaned children to Canada, including to Hazelbrae, the Barnardo’s home for girls in Peterborough and the namesake of Barnardo Avenue. Called home children, the orphans were sent to Canada to be adopted and to be used for labour, with many girls becoming domestic workers and boys becoming farm labourers.
Following The Housekeeper, 4th Line will then present the world premiere of Wild Irish Geese beginning July 29. Written by and starring Megan Murphy and directed by Kim Blackwell, the play tells the story of the impoverished Irish settlers who came to Canada in the 1820s under an emigration plan administered by Upper Canada politician Peter Robinson. More than 2,000 Irish Catholic families settled in what is now eastern Ontario, including in the Peterborough area.
The production will be a part of next summer’s 200th commemoration of the arrival of the first of the Peter Robinson Irish settlers in 1825. Many descendants of these original Irish settlers still live in the area, and others are being invited to return to the region to pay homage to their forbears.
“Murphy’s play is highly anticipated and sure to be an instant hit,” reads a media release from 4th Line.
According to 4th Line Theatre’s managing artistic director Kim Blackwell, both plays — which have been developed through 4th Line’s new play development program — focus on people who are in search of new lands, towns, and homes, many of whom are escaping persecution and abuse in search of safe and secure lives for themselves and their families.
“Two world premiere plays which explore people looking for a better life, for themselves and their families,” Blackwell says.
“The people in both plays will risk it all to find a haven of calm and peace in their lives. I think we can all relate to that desire.”
The Housekeeper will run at 6 p.m. Tuesdays to Saturdays from July 1 to 19, with preview nights on July 1 and 2 and opening night on July 3, and an added Monday performance on July 16. The play contains mature content and is recommended for audience members 16 and older.
Wild Irish Geese will run at 6 p.m. Tuesdays to Saturdays from July 29 to August 30, with preview nights on July 23 and 30 and opening night on July 31, and an added Monday performance on August 25.
Gift certificates and tickets for both productions will be on sale beginning Monday (November 4) by phone at 705-932-4445 (toll-free at 1-800-814-0055), online at 4thlinetheatre.on.ca, and at 4th Line Theatre’s Box Office location at 9 Tupper Street in Millbrook.
