Almost every year since renowned Canadian playwright Norm Foster cut the ribbon on Globus Theatre’s performance venue in Bobcaygeon 20 years ago, the professional theatre company has staged one of his plays.
This summer season, Globus Theatre is presenting Foster’s Come Down From Up River for 10 performances starting Wednesday (June 25) and running until Saturday, July 5.
Considered Canada’s most prolific playwright, the Newmarket-born Foster has written nearly 80 plays in the last 42 years and, at the age of 76, shows no signs of slowing down. He is also Canada’s most produced playwright, with around 150 of his plays staged around the world ever year.
Come Down From Up River premiered in 2018 at The Foster Festival in St. Catharines — the first theatre festival in Canada celebrating the work of a living Canadian playwright.
“It’s set in New Brunswick, where I live,” Foster told kawarthaNOW in 2018 before the play’s premiere. “It’s about a guy who is estranged from his niece, and he comes down river to see her before he goes to the doctor for a medical issue.”
The guy in question is Shaver Bennett, a logger who has spent most of his life isolated in the forests of northern New Brunswick. When he has to travel to Saint John for a series of medical tests, he hopes to stay with his estranged sister’s daughter, Bonnie Doyle, who he hasn’t seen for 23 years. Now a lawyer, Bonnie has been married to a Black woman named Liv Arsenault for three years.
Something happened between her mother and uncle when Bonnie was 12 years old that leads her to believe Shaver is an intolerant redneck, and she worries what will happen when he discovers she is married to Liv.
“Canadian theatre is so fortunate that, in part because of the Foster Festival that is now in its 10th year, Norm has been writing so many new and excellent plays,” says Globus Theatre co-founder and artistic director Sarah Quick in a media release.
“Come Down From Up River is one of those plays. It cleverly interweaves modern-day dilemmas with long-established perplexities, of both familial and romantic relationships. The characters are real, their stories resonate, and the laughter they elicit is plentiful.”
Directed by Quick, the Globus production of Come Down From Up River stars James Barrett as Shaver Bennett. The theatre company’s co-founder and artistic producer, Barrett also regularly performs in many Globus productions (Buying the Farm, Sexy Laundry, and Mending Fences among them).
Taking on the role of Bonnie Doyle is Tara Koehler, who had also starred in previous Globus productions (Where You Are, Sugar Road, and The Great Kooshog Lake Hollis McCauley Fishing Derby), with Jajube Mandiela (Degrassi – The Next Generation, Binti’s Journey, Wrecked) taking to the Globus stage for the first time as Liv Arsenault.
While all of Foster’s plays generate plenty of laughs, there’s always a theme of loss, sadness, or regret that lies beneath the humour, and Come Down From Up River is no exception.
“Much like our own relationships with loved ones, Come Down from Up River embraces the complexities of human connection, combining sensitivity with humour to tell a story of rekindled kinship,” reads the release from Globus Theatre.
Come Down From Up River will be performed at 2300 Pigeon Lake Road in Bobcaygeon with evening performances at 8 p.m. Wednesdays to Saturdays from June 25 to 28 and July 2 to 5, with 2 p.m. matinee performances on June 28 and July 3. An optional dinner is available before the evening performances.
Tickets are $50 for the show only or $100 for dinner and the show (plus tax and fee). For more information or to purchase tickets, visit www.globustheatre.com/shows-all/come-down-from-up-river or call the Globus Theatre box office at 705-738-2037.
