encoreNOW is a bi-weekly column by Paul Rellinger where he features upcoming music, theatre, film, and performing arts events and news from across the Kawarthas.
This week, Paul highlights Daniel Lanois at Lindsay’s Academy Theatre, 4th Line Theatre’s re-staging of Wild Irish Geese, Fly Me to the Moon at Bobcaygeon’s Globus Theatre, the Port Hope Arts Festival, the Peterborough Theatre Guild’s 10 Minute Sunday, and Trans-Canada Highwaymen headlining Peterborough Musicfest.
Daniel Lanois’ immersive soundscapes are bound for Lindsay
VIDEO: Daniel Lanois Trio
You may not think you’re familiar with Daniel Lanois’ work, but there’s a pretty good chance you are.
Besides his considerable success as a songwriter, musician, and recording artist, the Hull, Quebec native’s fingerprints are all over countless albums by a number of artists whose work you’re well familiar with.
Bob Dylan, U2, Neil Young, Peter Gabriel, Emmylou Harris, and Willie Nelson are among those who have enlisted Lanois’ talents as a producer. Three Lanois-produced albums — U2’s The Joshua Tree, Dylan’s Time Out of Mind, and Harris’ Wrecking Ball — have won Grammy Awards. Four others were in the running for the honour.
Interestingly, Lanois’ first foray as a producer, way back in 1981, was kind of a family affair. He produced This is the Ice Age by Martha and the Muffins, a band for which his sister played bass.
As mentioned, for all his fame as a producer — Rolling Stone magazine hailed him as “the most important record producer to emerge in the eighties” — Lanois has released nine albums of his own work, the latest being 2025’s Belladonna Nocturne.
On Sunday, August 2 at Lindsay’s FLATO Academy Theatre, Lanois will run through his sizable catalogue of songs, joined by Jim Wilson on bass and Jermaine Holmes on drums. As Lanois notes in the show promo, “The original instrument, that being the voice, is alive and well in this trio configuration.”
Who are we to argue with such an assessment from a man who clearly has an ear for what works?
Canadian music and media veteran Erica Ehm, who is an Academy Theatre board member, calls Lanois an “exceptional musician” and “one of those rare artists” who has influenced generations of performers.
“We are thrilled to have a rare intimate live performance with the Daniel Lanois Trio on our stage for an unforgettable evening of atmospheric, genre-defying music,” says Ehm in an email.
Securing a performance by the Order of Canada member and Governor General’s Lifetime Achievement Award recipient marks quite a coup for the Academy. You’d be wise to take full advantage. Tickets to Lanois’ 7:30 p.m. concert cost $82.50 at www.flatoacademytheatre.com.
“Wild Irish Geese” returns to Millbrook’s 4th Line Theatre
VIDEO: “Wild Irish Geese” featuring Megan Murphy (2025)
If she weren’t so damn nice, it would be easy to be jealous of Megan Murphy’s talent. As such, I find myself but one person in a crowd of her supporters, rooting her on every step of the way.
The brain trust behind 4th Line Theatre — aka founder Robert Winslow and managing artistic director Kim Blackwell — clearly share my admiration of Murphy’s work, bringing her play Wild Irish Geese back to the Winslow Farm near Millbrook for another run.
Murphy’s powerful story, which centres on the themes of migration and starting over, premiered at 4th Line last summer and was the hit that, deep down, most suspected it would be. Based on that response, Wild Irish Geese returns to the scenic outdoor venue from August 4 to 29.
Directed again by Blackwell, the story takes us back to the 1820s and the Peter Robinson-led emigration that brought hundreds of Irish families to Canada, each fleeing the famine and poverty of their homeland. More than 2,000 of the new arrivals settled in Scotts Plains — later to become Peterborough — and began the arduous process of building new lives in a strange land far from what they knew.
Murphy’s story, in which she plays the role of seanchaí (a traditional Irish storyteller) to narrate the play’s events, details the courage and spirit of the Robinson emigrants, and how they forged a new beginning in a complex colonial setting.
As cast member Paul Crough told kawarthaNOW last summer, Wild Irish Geese serves as “a reminder of the innate resiliency that the Irish are famous for.”
Murphy did her homework before putting pen to paper, and it shows, the result being proper homage paid those who are still proudly, and fondly, remembered by the thousands of descendants who call the Peterborough region home to his day.
Curtain is 6 p.m. Tuesday to Saturday, with preview performances on August 4 and 5, opening night on August 6, and an added Monday performance on August 24. Tickets are $55 ($48 for children and youth ages 5 to 16), with a discounted price of $42 for both adults and youth on preview nights, and are available 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.
Belfast-set comedy “Fly Me to the Moon” lands at Bobcaygeon’s Globus
Melee Hutton as Francis Shields and Sarah Evans as Loretta Mackie in Shillelagh Theatre Company’s 2025 production of “Fly Me to the Moon” at the Red Sandcastle Theatre in Toronto. Photo: Lisa Kannako)
The success of any theatrical production whose total cast is comprised of just two actors is heavily dependent on the skills of those two actors.
In Melee Hutton and Sarah Evans, Fly Me to the Moon features two veteran stage, film, and television actors whose talent makes the comedy exactly what it should be – witty, funny and endlessly entertaining.
Opening Wednesday, August 5 at Bobcaygeon’s Globus Theatre, Marie Jones’ story centres on overworked and underpaid Belfast community care providers Francis (Hutton) and Loretta (Evans) who are met with temptation when their 84-year-old client Davey, a fervent Frank Sinatra fan, passes away. Do they keep Davey’s death quiet and cash in his pension cheque?
If that’s not enough, things escalate when the scheming pair discover that Davey placed a winning bet on a horse just before he died, presenting them with a much more enticing temptation.
Born in Belfast, Hutton brings to the production numerous stage credits which have seen her awarded on both sides of the Atlantic, while Lee’s stage work has been taken in by audiences at numerous theatre festivals, including Stratford. Both have worked in film and television, sharing the experience of acting in Murdoch Mysteries.
Curtain is 8 p.m. from August 5 to 8 and 12 to 15, with 2 p.m. matinee performances on August 8 and 13. An optional dinner is available before evening performances. Tickets are $50 for the show only or $100 for dinner and the show, and are available at www.globustheatre.com.
Globus advises that the play features “a fair bit of colourful language — but in a lovely accent.”
Port Hope Arts Festival will see town’s downtown hopping
VIDEO: Port Hope Arts Festival (2024)
I don’t get to Port Hope often but when I do, I always enjoy walking the streets, especially those in the town’s downtown area. There is a welcoming and warm ambience that has clearly been encouraged and maintained over the years.
If you’ve yet to experience what I just described, the annual Port Hope Arts Festival provides all the incentive you need to make the trip to the lakeside community.
Set for Saturday, August 8 as the crown jewel of what is declared as Arts Month in Port Hope, there’s plenty on the menu, ranging from an outdoor artisan market, to Art Around Town (where work of local artists is prominently displayed in shop windows), to what’s billed as the Under The Marquee Street Party outside the historic Capitol Theatre featuring Peterborough rockabilly band Nicholas Campbell and The Metre Cheaters.
Then there’s the 10-Minute Play Series. Comedy, drama, satire … whatever your fancy, the series will see 15 plays — 10 minutes in length each, as advertised — staged in eight outdoor downtown locations. Performances start at 11 a.m. and continued on the half-hour and the hour until 4 p.m.
The best part is the cost, which is no cost at all, except for the Under The Marquee Street Party which requires a $25 ticket.
For more details, including Art Around Town locations, a list of the 10-Minute Play Series lineup and schedule and tickets for the Under The Marquee Street Party, visit www.porthope.ca/arts-festival.
Rain, shine, or heatwave, the festival will proceed, albeit some individual events may be moved indoors or cancelled outright in the event of severe weather.
10 plays in 100 minutes for $10 at the Peterborough Theatre Guild
It was Port Hope’s 10-Minute Play Series that inspired author and playwright D’Arcy Jenish to mount a similar one-day short play festival at the Peterborough Theatre Guild on a summer Sunday in 2025.
That inaugural event was so successful that it’s back for another year, with “10 Minute Sunday” set for August 9 at the Guild Hall on Rogers Street in Peterborough’s East City.
The festival will see the staging of 10 original plays, each 10 minutes long, with a matinee performance at 2 p.m. followed by an evening performance at 7 p.m. In keeping with the everything 10 theme, tickets cost $10 at https://ci.ovationtix.com/35868/production/1279438.
This year’s festival features works by a number of playwrights, among them Passion in Peterborough by Peterborough native Dave Carley whose full-length play Midnight Madness was staged at the Guild Hall back in March.
The other nine plays include Jenish’s Ten Minute Jitters, A Fairy’s Request by Marcia Johnson, Leave Now! and Fifty-Sixer by Bea Quarrie, A Flicker by Guy Newsham, Blaze McSizzle: Man on Fire by Cooper Bilton, Photographic Memory by Ron Davies, Second First Date by Wyatt Lamoureux, and The Future Looks Bleak by Jean Parker.
Performed by a combination of amateur and professional actors, and staged in quick succession, the Guild assures “each (play) will surprise you in different ways.” There’s no reason whatsoever to doubt the truth in that.
Trans-Canada Highwaymen performs classic Canadian pop/rock hits at Peterborough Musicfest
VIDEO: Trans-Canada Highwaymen Explosive Hits Vol. 1
Peterborough Musicfest executive director Tracey Randall tells anyone who’ll listen that she’s had, and still has, a number of acts on her festival-appearance wish list.
Now, with the upcoming performance by Trans-Canada Highwaymen on Wednesday, August 12, she has struck that act off her list after years of trying to lure the quartet to Del Crary Park.
Billed as a Canadian rock and pop supergroup, Trans-Canada Highwaymen is comprised of Chris Murphy of Sloan, Craig Northey of Odds, Moe Berg of The Pursuit of Happiness, and Barenaked Ladies’ co-founder Steven Page.
That’s a whole lot of big talent.
Formed in 2016, Trans-Canada Highwaymen was a touring-only affair initially but, when the pandemic put an end to going on the road, talk centred on recording an album. The result was 2023’s Explosive Hits Vol. 1, a compilation of Trans-Canada Highwaymen-performed classic Canadian pop and rock classics from the 1960s and 1970s by the likes of The Guess Who, Joni Mitchell, April Wine, Andy Kim and Lighthouse, to name a few.
The foursome’s Musicfest appearance will no doubt see some of those fun selections featured, but count on a few of the hits written and recorded by each members’ respective bands also being in the mix.
Prior to the free-admission concert at 8 p.m., check out the Future Sounds Series stage just inside the park’s George Street entrance where Vancamp will perform from 6:30 until 7:30 pm. The Calvin Bakelaar-led band was a big hit at Peterborough Performs VI back in February.
Encore
- Cobourg-based indie Celtic folk duo Lo & the High Road has launched a Kickstarter campaign to fund a vinyl and CD pressing of its sophomore album, Standing Stones. Targeted for release this fall, the campaign started as Lauren Halasz and Colin McMahon head out on a tour — a trek that brought them to Peterborough’s Sadleir House on July 25. The Kickstarter campaign serves both as a pre-order for copies of the new album as well as a way for fans of the duo to support the album’s completion.
- Staying with new music, Peterborough’s Irish Millie is pushing the release of “Allison,” her newest single. The opening track on her EP Between Then and Now, the song is a tribute to Sally Pirie, a fiddle teacher who first placed that instrument in Irish Millie’s hands at the age of six. Pirie passed away in late 2024, but her pupil, now 19 years old, never forgot her encouragement over six years of instruction.
