Susan Phillips and her husband Gerry Thompson are very
committed to their art.
The duo travelled all the way from Kanata
to East Haddam, Connecticut
to view Gillette Castle first hand in order to prepare
for their next performance.
Gillette
Castle was built by American
actor, playwright and stage manager William Gillette in the years 1913 to 1919.
The castle is the scene in which Postmortem, the next
production for the Kanata Theatre takes place.
Both members of the production company, Thompson, who’s
directing the play, and Phillips, the set designer, thought it would be a good
idea to visit the site where Postmortem takes place, in order to get a real
feel for how they wanted the play to look, they said.
“I read it and I enjoyed it,” said Thompson, of the play.
“I’ve always been a Sherlock Holmes fan so I decided to do this one.”
Gillette is best known for cultivating the contemporary
character of Sherlock Holmes.
“All the modern-day images we have of Sherlock Holmes come
from Gillette,” said Thompson.
“The deerstalker hat, the curved pipe, the shawl that he
wears; all those images actually come from the play. Some say the pipe is
curved because with a straight pipe you couldn’t see his face when he was on
stage.”
Postmortem, by Ken Ludwig, is set in 1922, when the cast of
Gillette’s revival of Sherlock Holmes assemble for a weekend of relaxation at
his magnificent medieval castle overlooking the Connecticut
River.
Gillette, best known for his 30-year portrayal of the famous
crime sleuth, arranges a seance. The scene is set for his greatest role:
someone is trying to murder him and he suspects it is one of his guests.
Intrepid, eccentric and wildly romantic, Gillette plans to
solve the case himself à la Sherlock Holmes.
The play is filled with a colourful cast of characters, all
of whom are suspects.
“I think it’s going to move back and forth for the
audience,” said Lee Powell, who plays the part of Leo. “They’re not going to
know who, what or where until the very end. They’ll have fun trying to figure
it out.”
“It’s sort of a whodunit, but it’s beyond a whodunit,” said
Janet Rice, who plays Aunt Lilly.
“We hope that the audience won’t guess who committed the
murder – if they do we haven’t done our job,” she added with a laugh.
This will be Rice’s first time on stage with Kanata Theatre,
although she is no stranger to the stage.
She has performed, “anywhere that will have me,” she said,
including Perth,
Ottawa Little Theatre, and made-for-TV movies.
She said she enjoys everything that comes with being a part
of a community theatre company, including all the time spent on preparations.
“I try not to think about (the time it takes),” she said.
“My husband reminds me every so often but I ignore it. It really doesn’t matter
if you love it.”
The cast and crew have been meeting three times a week
leading up to the performance, which begins on March 23 and runs until April 3.
Phillips said the set for this show has been tough to
complete. With over three weeks of time spent working on it, it is still in
progress, but promises to be quite a spectacle.
Allison Cameron, who works with the props, said it has also
been difficult finding pieces that fit the 1920s time period.
“There are a lot of things from the ’50s but not from the ’20s,”
she said.
The play promises intrigue, suspense, gun fights and
scandal. A whodunit indeed.
jessica.cunha@metroland.com