
February 29, 2024 · 0 Comments
By Constance Scrafield
Century Church is pleased to be presenting “An Act of Imagination” by Canadian playwright Bernard Slate opening March 3 and running over the weekends to Match 17.
In Britain, in 1966, Capital punishment was still within the law. How worried is a man accused of murder then? And what about blackmail and a woman who disappears?
All this is within the plot revolving around Arthur, a successful author with 23 fine thrillers but his latest is a romance novel, which he has given to his wife to read the manuscript and to judge how plausible it is. In the novel, the character has an affair with another woman, so convincing that his wife believes it is him.
One day, Arthur goes out to go shopping, when a young woman appears and asks for money – 5,000 pounds – because she says they did have an affair. From there, he goes to trial and things really get complicated.
“It is a cast of seven,” said director Nick Farrow. “The first girl is Welsh in the play and our young actress was determined to be Welsh. We had to find a Welsh speaker to teach her the accent. She’s done very well with it too.”
Mr. Farrow is directing and he is pleased that there are several new actors, new to him and the Theatre. They are very promising, said he and that he would be delighted to meet any of them again.
As do many folks involved with community theatre, Mr. Farrow works with other theatres as well, on the Board at the Clarkson Musical Theatre, where they had an almost sell-out of “A Chorus Line.”
Rehearsal scheduling has been a bit of a challenge, rehearsal Sundays in the daytime but Mondays run late. They have gone well even with the shorter time than usual.
“We did a table read and started early January,” Mr. Farrrow told us.
For the sheer fun of a mystery play that is not the run of the mill, with lots of twists and a thunderous ending that saw Arthur “awash in affair accusations” this is a worthy time spent at the theatre.
Even the very interesting set of an upscale house is a bit different. One of those challenges was the call for blood splatter on the wall to accommodate during the show, a wall without and then with splatter, that is.
Within the play, the main characters of husband and wife have a tremendous amount of dialogue.
“They have it down pat,” he assured us, with respect and gratitude in his tone.
Funny, chilling and very clever, be sure to catch “An Act of Imagination” at Century Church Theatre, opening this weekend, March 3 and running to March 17.
For details and to purchase tickets go to: centurychurchtheatre.com/