MORRISBURG – “Norm Foster has recently remarked that Christmas is his favourite time of year. So Canada’s favourite playwright has conceived a show that will spread cheer, laughter and intrigue from November 28 through December 15,” said Donnie Bowes, artistic director of Upper Canada Playhouse.
Ethan Claymore’s Christmas, a new Norm Foster comedy written especially for the Yuletide season is coming to the theatre the end of this month.
Bowes says the show is filled with unforgettable characters, and tons of humour and heart.
Ethan Claymore is a recently widowed and struggling egg farmer, who tends to keep away from others. Then Douglas McClaren, well meaning, but nosey, insists his neighbour get out, get into the Christmas spirit, and get to meet new school teacher Teresa Pike.
In the tradition of A Christmas Carol, Ethan will also experience the intervention of another, very unexpected Christmas visitor, the ghost of his recently deceased brother Martin. The brothers scrapped when he was alive, and now Martin has come to “settle an old score” that estranged the two of them.
Needless to say, it is not going to be easy for Ethan to deal with this wise-cracking, very funny ghost, especially a ghost who stages flashbacks to the brothers’ childhoods.
Poignant, hilarious, and a wonderful story, Ethan Claymore’s Christmas promises to be a production audiences will take to heart.
Bowes has assembled an outstanding cast for this final show of the Upper Canada Playhouse 2019 season.
In the role of Ethan will be actor/director/playwright Jesse Collins, no stranger himself to performing in and directing Foster’s comedies. He will be very familiar to audiences from such hit productions as Dean and Jerry – What Might Have Been, Halfway There and this season’s Where You Are and Same Time Next Year.
Popular actor and playwright Jamie Williams also returns in the role of brother Martin. He has appeared in outstanding Playhouse productions of Lunenburg and the Foster comedies Bedtime Stories, The Affections of May and Halfway There.
Sweeney Arthur is also coming back to Upper Canada Playhouse as nosey neighbour Douglas. He was a hit in The Christmas Express and in other Playhouse productions. He has just finished a long run in the Mirvish Productions musical, Mama Mia.
Viviana Zarrillo, who delighted audiences in her starring role in Same Time Next Year, is stepping into the role of teacher Teresa Pike. She has also appeared in UCP productions of Last of the Red Hot Lovers and Plaza Suite.
Joining the cast, as the young Martin, is local actor Gavin Veinotte, who was first seen in the Playhouse production of Miracle on 34th Street. Sharing the role of Young Ethan are local boys Jack Peets, graduate of the UCP Theatre School and newcomer to the Playhouse stage, Liam McMahon.
Ethan Claymore’s Christmas is directed by Donnie Bowes: the production is designed by Sean Free. A wonderful Norm Foster show for adults and children 10 years and up, Ethan Claymore’s Christmas, is Upper Canada Playhouse’s Christmas gift to audiences in 2019.
