ECHO Players has announced its 2015/16 season, and there is plenty of theatre entertainment to please every audience.
The season will open in October with the comedy Calendar Girls by Tim Firth.
Directed by Don Harper, the play is based on the popular motion picture of the same name.
The action takes place in Yorkshire when Annie’s husband dies of leukemia. She and her best friend Chris persuade members of the local Women’s Institute to pose nude for an “alternative” calendar, with the proceeds going to charity in his memory.
Of course, the news of the venture spreads like wildfire and the media soon descend on their small village.
In December, ECHO Players and director Lesley McVey will present Merry Christmas, George Bailey! Set in a 1940s radio studio, the Christmas production will feature all the fun sound effects of a radio show and local commercial breaks.
Merry Christmas, George Bailey! is an adaptation of It’s A Wonderful Life! The popular film was first put on the radio by Lux Radio Theater in 1949, and this radio production was then moved to the stage in 2002.
The tone in the Village Theatre will then take a turn when The Sound of Murder hits the stage in February 2016.
Directed by Wendy Punter, The Sound of Murder is a murder mystery with intriguing twists and turns by William Fairchild.
The action takes place in a cottage in Surrey, England, where a successful but unloveable writer of children’s books appears to be dead. Then suspicions are raised when a tape recorder with a conversation about murder between his wife and her lover is discovered.
Finally, Gordon May will direct the celebrated Henrik Ibsen drama A Doll’s House in April 2016. This will be the company’s entry to the 2016 North Island Zone Festival in Campbell River.
The classic play opened to a storm of controversy when it first performed in 1879. This isn’t surprising: A Doll’s House portrays one married woman’s struggle towards self-realization in a male-dominated society.
As there are only four plays in the coming season, the price of the 2015/16 season ticket has been reduced to $70 for adults and $60 for seniors.
To purchase a season subscription, please phone the Village Theatre Box Office at 250-752-3522.
Those purchasing season tickets by August 15 will be entered in a draw for a night at the Chateau Victoria and a $100 gift certificate.
To purchase tickets for a single play, you’ll have to wait for the box office to open two weeks before the production for which you want tickets.
Also, tickets to the Vancouver Island One Act Play Festival, which is hosted by the Village Theatre between Nov. 2-8 but is not part of the ECHO Players 2015/16 season, are sold separately as well.
For more information, e-mail: info@echoplayers.ca.
—NEWS Staff/ECHO Players