MORRISBURG – A classic tale! Laughter and excitement! Dufflebag Theatre is coming to Upper Canada Playhouse on Saturday, October 14, at 1 p.m., one show only, with a sparkling production of ‘The Three Musketeers!’ This is a wondrous show that will delight parents and kids alike. (The company is doing one other show on October 13 but for schools only).
Dufflebag Theatre is renowned throughout Canada for bringing classic fairy tales and folktales to life in a spectacular, fun-filled and humorous way. The stage is transformed during a show into a new world: with a narrator guiding the action, the actors also invite young audience members to take active parts in the show from acting to staging. This is interactive theatre at its finest and has proved hugely popular with audiences from kindergarten to grade eight. In this production of ‘The Three Musketeers,’ children will actually be able to help brave Musketeers Porthos, Athos and Aramis save the young king of France from the evil plots of Cardinal Richelieu.
Dufflebag Theatre calls itself the ‘nearly’ world famous troupe because the company has played to audience all over the world. Their tongue-in-cheek goal is “to entertain the galaxy one planet at a time.”
Founded in 1992 at the London Ontario International Children’s Festival, the company swiftly expanded from four to fourteen talented players who now bring characters from magical tales like ‘Beauty and the Beast’ to adventurers like The Three Musketeers’ to life, to the delight of young audiences. Playhouse director Donnie Bowes says that “it is a thrill to have them perform here at Upper Canada Playhouse.”
Marcus Lundgren, co-founder and artistic director of Dufflebag, is an award winning actor (among other roles, he played Captain Kirk in ‘A Celebration of Star Trek’ during its five year run.) He has been the Director of the Lighthouse Festival Young Company of Port Dover for over 21 seasons. As Lundgren puts it, “he has the best job in the whole world, making people laugh, because it never feels like work.”
Lundgren actually dropped by the Playhouse in the summer of 2022, and saw one of the shows in our theatre. He told Donnie Bowes at the time that he thought the Playhouse would be a “terrific place for Dufflebag to perform” and UCP decided to make the company part of the 2023 season.
The Playhouse is always looking for opportunities for young people to experience the wonders of live theatre. ‘The Three Musketeers,’ featuring the creativity and talent of the players of Dufflebag Theatre will be a delightful, exciting and totally unique experience for young people. Don’t miss the October 14 production of ‘The Three Musketeers.’ Contact the Playhouse for tickets.