For the fifth and penultimate production of its 2025-26 season, the Peterborough Theatre Guild will be staging Midnight Madness, a comedy by Peterborough native Dave Carley, for 10 performances from February 27 to March 14.
Described as a fast-paced and entertaining exploration of the unexpected turns that can change a life, the play begins as Bloom’s Furniture manager Wesley is about to close the doors for the final time on the store and on his career during a going-out-of-business sale, when former high school classmate Anna walks in.
She doesn’t recognize him at first, but Wesley remembers her as he has been keeping tabs on all his former classmates. Anna has returned to her home town to start a career as a lawyer and, as the pair recall the humiliating events that drove them both of them from high school before graduation, they reconcile with their past and find a spark of romance.
Directed by Jane Werger, the Peterborough Theatre Guild production stars Eddy Sweeney as Wesley, Carling Dulder as Anna, and Jack Burke as Mister Bloom.
Born and raised in Peterborough, award-winning playwright Dave Carley is no stranger to the Peterborough Theatre Guild, having written the musical spoof Susanna!, based on the life of 19th-century English-born Canadian author Susanna Moodie, for the Guild in 1979 while he was a student at the University of Toronto. His 1985 play Hedges, also staged by the Guild, represented Canada at an international theatre festival in Japan.
To date, Carley’s many full-length and short plays have seen over 500 productions across Canada, the United States, and in many countries around the world. One of his latest full-length plays, an adaptation of Canadian writer and environmentalist Farley Mowat’s 1979 war memoir And No Birds Sang, will have its world premiere at the Capitol Theatre in Port Hope in August.
Although he now lives and works in Toronto, Carley describes himself as “a proud Peterburian” and, in 2022, was inducted into the Peterborough Pathway of Fame.
Midnight Madness will be staged at the Guild Hall at 364 Rogers Street in Peterborough’s East City with evening performances at 7:30 p.m. on February 27 and 28, March 5 to 7, and March 12 to 14, with 1:30 p.m. matinee performances on March 1 and 8.
Assigned seating tickets are $30 for adults, $27 for seniors, and $20 for students and are available by phone at 705-745-4211 or online at www.peterboroughtheatreguild.com/upcoming-plays/midnight-madness.
kawarthaNOW is proud to be a media sponsor of the Peterborough Theatre Guild’s 2025-26 season.
