On Wednesday, June 27th, The Theatre on King (TTOK) closes its 2017-2018 season with Ryan Kerr’s production of Eugene Ionesco’s absurdist comedy The Chairs.

Featuring the talents of Di Latchford and Randy Read, The Chairs also marks an end of an era for TTOK as the final theatrical production performed at their much-beloved performance space at 159 King Street in downtown Peterborough.

Since presenting The Bald Soprano in the fall of 2016, Ryan Kerr has made Eugene Ionesco productions a regular occurrence at TTOK. Filled with clever word play, zany characters ,and politically charged allegories, Ionesco’s plays are often difficult shows to produce, but Ryan and his company have risen up to the challenge again and again, making his Ionesco shows not only some of the most memorable productions Ryan has produced but also entertaining, audience favourites.

“The challenge in Ionesco, or any of the writers of the theatre of the absurd, is that it a completely different style,” Ryan explains. “There isn’t necessarily a through line. There’s not necessarily character development.

“It’s more about ideas, the situation, and the language. It really highlights the words as opposed to the people or the characters. They are a challenge for the actors, the director, and the audience.”

Ryan says he also enjoys Ionesco because he finds the plays “hilarious”.

“A lot of the writers in Europe writing plays just after World War Two were very deeply touched and affected by the war, and it’s interesting they chose to write with humour as a way to understand what had happened. I think there had to be a certain kind of pressure gauge that had to be released, and these shows acknowledge that they world is indeed absurd — but it can also be funny, and also poignant and touching.”

Written in 1952, The Chairs has been described as being “a tragic farce.” The show presents an older married couple who, although having been together for decades, retain a loving marriage. Recently the man has come upon “a message” he feels must be told to “everyone” and calls for a great meeting at his home.

Together, he and his wife prepare for their guests, and to reveal the man’s message to the world. Of course, there is much more to the story, but in all honesty it is best for the audience to discover the show just as I did. Allow yourself to be surprised and delighted, and buckle up for a very funny and surprising journey.

“It’s all about what’s real and what’s not,” Ryan says. “I don’t want to give any more away.”

Randy Read and Di Latchford bring something very special to this show. Their delivery of the material is much different than that of other Ionesco shows Ryan has produced in the past. In other shows, the actors tend to accentuate the absurdity of the language and situation by creating over emphasized characters with a certain over-the-top tone to the comedy. However, with Randy and Di, a different tone is created by having the two characters played in a much more straigthforward fashion.

It’s interesting to listen to these characters be placed in such a ridiculous situation, but present it as if it’s the most normal situation in the world. The result is an entirely different dynamic than what I’ve come to expect from one of Ryan’s Ionesco shows. There’s warmth between the two characters, who thereby become much more relatable to the audience despite the insanity presented on the stage.

A regular on the local stage and at TTOK, this marks Di Latchford’s first appearance in one of Ryan’s Ionesco productions.

“I’ve had Di cast in another roles at TTOK and she’s fantastic,” Ryan says of his leading lady. “I wanted to give her a role that would show off what she can do, but also challenge her.”

The Chairs is also a rare acting appearance by local favourite Randy Read, best known as the artistic director of New Stages Peterborough, who makes his TTOK debut in something completely out of his element.

“Randy has done a lot of acting in his life, but he hasn’t been doing a lot of acting recently,” Ryan explains. “He did do Our Town at Market Hall recently, but he has never done any acting at The Theatre on King before.

“Randy also tends to explore more non-absurd theatre in his own productions, so I knew this would be a challenge because it is new for him. It’s a new space for him and, although we’ve worked together before, he hasn’t worked with me as a director.

“Di and Randy are the perfect choices for this production. It’s been interesting working with them, and seeing them rise to the challenge. They both get along really well, and they are the perfect cast for this show.”

While not all of the absurdist theatre that Ryan produces at TTOK could necessarily be called audience friendly, what I personally love about Eugene Ionesco is how genuinely entertaining his plays are. Although the language might be challenging and the plots and events up for personal interpretation, the themes of the shows are fairly straightforward and understandable.

The Chairs is no exception to this, with much of the same themes of the uncontrollable nature of events and absurdity of power being explored. It’s an easily accessible and entertaining show completely different from what is being produced by any other theatre company in Peterborough.

“We don’t necessary learn this history of theatre anymore,” Ryan points out. “We are in the age of very popular musicals. That’s fine, but it means that some of the really good plays written in the past are being skipped over and forgotten. You need to know where you came from in order to go forward.

“I also think absurdist plays are very appropriate for the times that we are living in. Our leaders are not who they appear to be. There’s an awful lot of absurdity and randomness that we have no control over. In some sense, we can identify with some of the characters and what they are going through.”

The Chairs also features costumes by Kate Story, set by Kate Story and Paul Oldham, and lights and sound by Shannon McKenzie. It is truly the best of what patrons have come to expect of TTOK’s mission at creating interesting and thought-provoking theatre.

As mentioned, The Chairs will also mark the end of an era for The Theatre on King. When the final curtain comes down at the 2 p.m. matinee on June 30th, it will mark the final theatrical performance for the TTOK, as a popular and much-loved artistic hub, at the King Street location.

Rumours of major changes in the works for TTOK have been circulating through the arts community in recent days. Although nothing official has been announced yet, things will look much different for the theatre company when they launch their 2018-2019 season in September.

In the meantime, the LLAADS troupe (Lindsay Unterlander, Luke Foster, Adam Wilkinson, Adam Martignetti, Dan Smith, and Sarah McNeilly) will continue to perform their popular comedy show at the space through June and July, and a few other events will be held before the theatre closes for August. But as for theatrical productions, The Chairs will be the final chance for audiences to enjoy the experience of seeing unique theatre in this black box space again. The Chairs is a perfect way to say goodbye to the TTOK that we’ve come to know.

The Chairs runs from Wednesday, June 27th to Saturday, June 30th at TTOK in downtown Peterborough, with performances at 8 p.m. except the closing matinee on Saturday at 2 p.m. Tickets are $15 at the door or pay what you can.

If Mickey Thomas’ music career had ended in 1976, he would have exited the stage on a high note.

A backing singer with The Elvin Bishop Group at the time, Thomas was invited to sing the lead vocal on “Fooled Around And Fell In Love”. Elvin Bishop selflessly handed over the reins, figuring Thomas’ smooth singing voice to better suited for the track.

That was a very good call. Released as a single, the rock ballad zoomed to #3 on the Billboard Top 100 chart, but more notably it brought Thomas to the attention of Jefferson Starship — the band that evolved out of the pioneering 1960s psychedelic rock band Jefferson Airplane following the departure of bassist Jack Casady and guitarist Jorma Kaukonen. Jefferson Starship which recruited him as its lead singer in April 1979.

Now, close to 40 years later — after a couple of name changes and a mostly new cast of performers — Starship featuring Mickey Thomas comes to Del Crary Park in downtown Peterborough on Saturday, June 30th at 8 p.m. as Peterborough Musicfest opens its 32nd season of free summer concerts.

VIDEO: “Fooled Around and Fell in Love” by Elvin Bishop featuring Mickey Thomas

For sure, Thomas will perform the song that brought him out of the shadows all those years ago, but expect a full helping of the iconic hit songs that made Jefferson Starship, and later Starship, and now Starship featuring Mickey Thomas, a top-selling staple on the crowded 1980s pop-rock landscape.

“I was flattered to get the call … I at least owed them (Jefferson Starship) the courtesy of going over there and seeing what’s up,” recalls Thomas of the audition call, in a 2013 interview with Nick Deriso of www.somethingelsereviews.com.

“They were going for a harder edge at that point in time. Then here we come with Jane. That was quite a statement. It worked because when you think about it, a lot of what we think of as hard rock bands from back in the day, it all goes back to the blues. With Led Zeppelin, Aerosmith, all of those bands, it was about the blues, so it really kind of made sense. We got together and were really able to forge a new style that worked as Jefferson Starship.”

VIDEO: “Jane” – Jefferson Starship

Buoyed by the success of 1979’s “Jane” — it attained #14 on the Billboard Top 100 — Jefferson Starship recorded four albums with Thomas, front-and-centre with the legendary Grace Slick of Jefferson Airplane fame in the mix for three of those.

But 1984 brought upheaval when guitarist Paul Kantner, the last remaining founding member of Jefferson Airplane, left Jefferson Starship and took legal action against his former band mates over the Jefferson Starship name. That gave rise to Starship featuring Thomas and Slick.

Starship’s 1985 debut album Knee Deep In The Hoopla produced two huge-selling singles in “We Built This City” and “Sara”. The 1987 follow-up No Protection spawned the monster single “Nothing’s Gonna Stop Us Now”. Featured on the soundtrack of the comedy film Mannequin, it reached #1 in the United States and the United Kingdom, and earned an Oscar nomination for Best Original Song.

VIDEO: “Nothing’s Gonna Stop Us Now” – Starship

At the time, it made Slick, at age 47, the oldest woman to have a number one single in the United States — a record later broken by Cher at age 52 courtesy of “Believe” in 1999.

“With Knee Deep In The Hoopla, we definitely made a conscious effort to sort of redefine ourselves and say ‘Let’s go in and try to do a completely different approach to music. Let’s use a different method. Let’s try to have a couple of hit singles. Let’s just go for it.’

“My career, and Starship’s career, has encompassed so much more than just that pop period. Those are the songs that have the lasting value though. They’re the kind of fabric of people’s lives. That’s OK. The success of those songs is one of the biggest reasons why I’m still able to go out and perform 75 to 100 shows a year, and still bring the music to the people. ”

VIDEO: “We Built This City” – Starship

Thomas understands the criticism, then and still now, leveled by diehard Jefferson Airplane fans that see Starship’s commercial pop music success as an affront to the music that defined 1969’s Summer of Love in San Francisco.

“If you wanted to survive, if you wanted to continue to be a viable band and make records, and to stay together, then you better conform to the times,” he says. “At that point in time, it had reached a point that if you didn’t get Top 40 airplay and you weren’t on MTV, then you just weren’t part of the game. You had to have that presence.”

Starship, minus Slick who left the band in 1989, closed out the 1980s with a third album, Love Among The Cannibals,, which featured the top charting singles “Wild Again” and “It’s Not Enough”.

VIDEO: “Sara” – Starship

While Love Among The Cannibals didn’t enjoy anything near the commercial success of Starship’s first two albums, it remains Thomas’ favourite of the bunch.

“It’s just the one that, for my personal tastes, I would enjoy going back and listening to … it still sounds fresh to me,” says Thomas.

“Of course, there was a lot of other stuff going on during the making of that record. Grace had left the band and then Paul was suing the band. Then Grace was suing Paul and Paul was suing Grace, and they were suing our manager. That’s kind of what made me come up with the title and the song Love Among the Cannibals. I thought, ‘Wow, these people kind of exemplify the whole love generation of the late 1960s, peace and love and wearing flowers in your hair and let’s change the world and now all they want to do is sue each other.”

VIDEO: “It’s Not Enough” – Starship

In 1992, Thomas renamed the band Starship featuring Mickey Thomas and 24 years would pass until the band’s next studio project, Loveless Fascination.

The band has undergone a number of personnel changes since its heyday — Stephanie Calvert (vocals), Jeff Adams (bass), John Roth (guitar), Phil Bennett (keyboards) and Darrell Verdusco (drums) are now in the mix — but Thomas’ unmistakable vocals remain the anchor 43 years after Elvin Bishop stepped aside and gave the Georgia-born singer his shot.

And in case you’re wondering, there’ll also be a taste of some of the classic tunes from the band’s namesake Jefferson Airplane.

“Stephanie Calvert and myself do a medley in the show that’s a kind of historical tribute to the band,” Thomas says. “Stephanie performs a couple of Grace Slick’s most notable songs, ‘White Rabbit’ and ‘Somebody to Love.'”

VIDEO: “White Rabbit / Miracles / Count on Me / Somebody to Love” Medley – Starship featuring Mickey Thomas

Peterborough Musicfest is presenting 18 free-admission concerts featuring a total of 20 acts during its 32nd season — each staged on Wednesday and Saturday nights at Del Crary Park.

Overseen by general manager Tracey Randall and staff, a board of directors, and numerous volunteers, Peterborough Musicfest’s stated mission is to “provide diverse, affordable live music to enrich cultural and economic prosperity in our community.”

For more information on this concert or the entire 2018 season, visit www.ptbomusicfest.ca or phone the Peterborough Musicfest office at 705-755-1111.

On Tuesday, June 26th, Globus Theatre at the Lakeview Arts Barn opens its landmark 15th season in in Bobcaygeon with the return of popular performer Leisa Way and the Wayward Wind Band. Across the Pond: The British Invasion, featuring the music of Britain’s most iconic and beloved performers, runs for 14 performances until Saturday, July 7th.

One of the most popular traditions of Globus Theatre’s summer season, this year marks Leisa’s fifth summer at Globus Theatre. A Leisa Way show is always an event to look forward to, with her high-energy stage presence, captivating storytelling, and genuine warmth making her an audience favourite year after year.

One of the busiest performers in the country, Leisa’s roster of musical shows are in high demand across Canada every summer. In fact, her stop in Bobcaygeon is part of a tour through Ontario and Quebec where she’ll be doing 65 performances in only eight weeks.

“We’re having a blast,” Leisa tells me via telephone from Hudson, Quebec, where she was performing Across the Pond at the Hudson Village Theatre. “People ask us if we’re tired and yeah … but it’s a good tired. Every time I leave the stage I’m literally moving a mile a minute changing into different costumes. I have twelve costume changes.

“It’s very intense. If you lose your focus for a moment the whole audience will know. Most everyday life you can be unfocused, but in our case for two and a half hours, we need to keep our focus. But we love it.”

VIDEO: Across the Pond: The British Invasion

Filled with memorable songs, stories and interesting musical trivia, tributes and costume changes, Leisa’s performances are not impersonation as much as concerts that celebrate a certain artist, genre, or time in music.

“I never call my shows revues — they’re concerts,” Leisa explains. “They have really great music and stories. That’s what I love to share with the audience, and the British Invasion has given me a huge wealth of material to draw from.”

Making its debut in 2017, Across the Pond is loving tribute by Leisa and her band (renamed The Lonely Hearts Club Band for this show) to the British Invasion, one of the most exciting and dynamic movements in music history, aand features the music of The Beatles, The Rolling Stones, The Animals, The Hollies, Tom Jones, Procol Harum, The Seekers, Van Morrison, and more.

Leisa reveals that a big influence for the show was the memories of discovering her love of music through her older sister.

“All the music that I knew as a child was from my sister,” Leisa recalls. “I idolized her. She got married when I was seven years old, and I would go and visit her and sit on the floor of her living room with the big huge head set and go through her record collection. I’d spend summers with her, because she ran a restaurant up north, and I had hours and hours to sit in front of her stereo.

“I remember falling in love with Elton John’s Goodbye Yellow Brick Road album with the huge yellow fold-out with all the lyrics on it. That was my favourite memory because it was so cool to have all the lyrics to sing along with. So my sister really started me off on my journey. My mom and dad loved music, but it was my sister’s record collection that got me started.”

Leisa also turned to her husband, actor David Naim, and her good friend and famed Canadian playwright Norm Foster as a starting point to developing Across the Pond.

“David and Norm were the first people I emailed and said ‘Give me the first 25 songs that I can’t do without for this show,'” Leisa says. “When I compared their lists, there were only six songs that were different.”

Not only is it a matter of picking the best songs to do one of Leisa’s shows, but it takes a ton of research to create the thread that ties the show together. For Across the Pond, Leisa had to discover her own interpretation of the impact that British music had on North American culture in the late 1960s.

“Researching the show and learning about the artists and their stories and how it all happened was so exciting to me,” Leisa says. “In the late 1950s music was starting to falter. Artists like Pat Boone and Fabian were starting to conform to the norm. So something had to come along to shake things up and The Beatles were that thing.

“When the Beatles first hit the States, music critics were saying they were awful and they couldn’t sing or play. But when you look back you realize that, no, what they were doing was brilliant. The Beatles set a new bar. Whether you wrote or performed that kind of music or not, that bar to beat was set by The Beatles. It was an interesting journey in more ways than just musically. It was something that the teenagers needed to scream about and idolize.”

While the impact that The Beatles had on North America is obviously a huge part of the show, Across the Pond features the full roster of artists that came out of the British movement. As Leisa points out, the early days of the British Invasion were dominated by men, which allows the members of her band — including Fred Smith, Bobby Prochaska, Nathan Smith, Sam Cino, Aaron Solomon, Randall Kempf, Bob Hewes, and musical director Bruce Ley — to take centre stage and show off their musical talents.

As anyone who saw Leisa’s show Oh Canada, We Sing for Thee last summer at Globus can attest, these guys are not only incredible performers in their own right, but share the same warmth of energy that makes Leisa so popular with audiences.

“In a lot of ways this is really a guy show,” Leisa admits. “It’s close, beautiful harmonies and the guys in my band were excited to do this show because they are so good at it. In the first bit of the show, I tell the story of what happened, but I don’t sing that much.

“It really was a time that was dominated by male performers. In the beginning of the show, it’s about The Rolling Stones and Garry and the Pacemakers and Herman’s Hermits and The Dave Clark Five. There were not really that many girl groups in England.”

However, that doesn’t stop Leisa from continuing the famous tribute portions of her shows where she recreates the looks of some of the musical icons of the era. In Across the Pond, Leisa has 12 costume changes where she does musical tributes to Lulu, Petula Clark, Dusty Springfield, Dame Shirley Bassey, and more.

And Across the Pond doesn’t stop with the 1960s. Leisa and her band trek right into the 1970s and beyond, featuring the music of a diverse range of British performers such as Led Zeppelin, Queen, Annie Lennox, George Michael, Sting, Rod Stewart, Eric Clapton, Adele, and Ed Sheeran.

“At the end of the show, I tell the audience that the British Invasion never really went away,” Leisa says. “There are so many great artists from Britain that continue to thrill North American audiences. I don’t think that’ll ever end.”

Leisa Way’s musicals are always a true treat and make a perfect summer outing. No matter which genre or artist she is covering, it’s impossible not to be affected by the energy, the positivity, and the pure joy that goes into one of her shows. Leisa’s on-stage charisma, matched with the sheer perfection of her extremely talented band, has made her a favourite with audiences everywhere she plays.

With with her popularity growing across Canada, it is a truly wonderful that she comes back to the Kawarthas year after year. Leisa’s shows are among the ones I look forward to the most each year, because I know I’ll be treated to a truly enjoyable night of performance and music. This is the reason while Leisa Way remains one of my favourite performers. She never ceases to deliver, so I can confidently say Across the Pond: The British Invasion is a guaranteed winner and well worth the drive to Bobcaygeon.

Across the Pond: The British Invasion runs from Tuesdays to Saturdays from June 26th to July 7th at the Lakeview Arts Barn. Shows start at 8 p.m., with 2 p.m. matinees on June 27th and 20th and July 3rd and 5th. A three-course table d’hôte menu is available at 6 p.m. prior to every evening performance.

Tickets are $34.50 for the show only, or $71 if you want the dinner and the show. For tickets, visit the box office at Lakeview Arts Barn or call 705-738-2037.