This season, Bard to Broadway is presenting The Ladies Man, You’re a Good Man, Charlie Brown, Vanya and Sonia and Masha and Spike and Once Upon a Mattress.
The Ladies Man
The Ladies Man is a loosely-adapted French farce, according to director Kelly Barnum.
“It’s about a man who is having trouble with his wife. She suspects him of having an affair and she’s trying to figure out who it is he’s having an affair with,” said Barnum, adding that the wife’s mom comes to help and other characters end up getting caught up in the story.
“It’s everything you would expect in a bedroom farce; miscommunication, people caught in compromising positions,” said Barnum adding that there’s five doors on stage that people are constantly opening and closing, just missing each other.
Barnum said the other two shows were designed around the doors for The Ladies Man.
“A lot of the set design was based off of this show and the need for doors that aren’t going to wobble when they get slammed,” Barnum said. “Anyone who comes to see all three shows will see three very different looking uses of the space which Bard has always done really well.”
You’re a Good Man, Charlie Brown
Like The Ladies Man, set design was a key part of You’re a Good Man, Charlie Brown.
“We’ve gone with sort of oversized (pieces) so it makes the kids look smaller,” director Kathy Harper said, adding that the cast ranges in age from 17 to the “ripe old age of 26.”
Harper said Bard To Broadway did a production of You’re a Good Man, Charlie Brown eight years. ago. She added that audiences will identify with the characters.
“People — no matter how old they are — remember the Peanuts comic strip. They’re such unique little characters. They’re not really children, they’re not really adults,” Harper said. “You have little people — in terms of age — with these very philosophic or grown-up comments coming out of their mouths.”
Vanya and Sonia and Masha and Spike
Vanya and Sonia and Masha and Spike follows middle-aged siblings Vanya and Sonia, who still live in the family home they grew up in, according to director Mike Moroz.
Moroz said that the siblings spent a good portion of their lives looking after their parents who recently passed away. He added that Vanya and Sonia’s sibling Masha, who is now famous, shows up with her young boyfriend to attend a costume party.
“And chaos ensues,” Moroz said, adding that as the audience can imagine, there is some resentment toward Masha for not helping to take care of their parents.
“What we have is three siblings, who later in life, wind up at the family home that they shared,” Moroz said. “Over the course of the show, they evaluate how they spent those lives.”
Vanya and Sonia and Masha and Spike is a Tony-award winning play, and B2B is the first non-professional theatre company on Vancouver Island to present the comedy.
Once Upon a Mattress
Once Upon a Mattress, a musical retelling of The Princess and the Pea is the teen musical theatre’s performance at the end of Bard To Broadway’s season in August.
Anyone interested in the teen musical theatre can contact Hilary Whelton at 250-752-0547 or wheltonc@shaw.ca.
Tickets for all shows in the upcoming B2B season are on sale now by phone at 250-752-4470, in person at the Village Theatre box office (110 West Second Ave., Qualicum Beach) or online at www.b2btheatre.com/tickets. Tickets for Once Upon a Mattress are $12 each, while tickets for the three other shows are $12 for children, $21 for seniors and students and $23 for adults.
The Ladies Man will run July 8-9, 11, 18-19, 25-26 and Aug. 1-3, 10, 13 at 7:30 p.m. with a matinee on July 17 at 2 p.m.
You’re a Good Man, Charlie Brown will run July 6-7, 14-15, 20-22, 29-30 and Aug. 8 at 7:30 p.m. with two matinees on July 31 and Aug. 7 at 2 p.m.
Vanya and Sonia and Masha and Spike will run July 5, 12-13, 23, 27-28 and Aug. 4-6, 9 at 7:30 p.m. with a matinee on July 24 at 2 p.m.
Once Upon a Mattress will run Aug. 11-12 at 7:30 p.m. with two matinees Aug. 12-13 at 2 p.m.
For more information, visit www.b2btheatre.com.
The NEWS also has complimentary tickets online at www.pqbnews.com/contests or on Facebook at PQB News.