Arts and Entertainment

From Fredricton to Orangeville: Norm Foster’s road trip with David Nairn

September 25, 2025   ·   0 Comments

By Constance Scrafield

Here is what took place last week: In order to keep his engagements here in Orangeville, Norm Foster, who lives in Fredericton, N.B., informed one and all that he does not fly anymore, nor drive long distances on his own, like from his town to ours.

Determined to avail Foster of acceptable transportation in accordance with what is not, David Nairn offered to fly to Fredericton, drive Foster to Orangeville in Foster’s car, and follow that with the additional offer: to drive Foster back to Fredericton and fly back to Toronto once Foster’s delightful engagements here were done.

Foster was here to do three readings with other actors of three of his favourite plays, presented on three separate dates. The third of these, this past Sunday, was Jonas and Barry In The Home, a play Foster wrote for himself and David Nairn to perform, along with one female cast member. This time Mairi Babb read the part.

It is a tale of two senior men who meet in a Seniors’ Home – the gossip, the scandals, the tremendous Foster fun, yet not without Foster’s equally meaty reality checks.

Over several years and many locations, the two friends have performed the show an impressive 206 times.

Nairn and Foster have been friends for many years.

By Monday of this week, the two were back on the road from here to New Brunswick’s capital city and Foster’s home, with a stopover in Cornwall. Cornwall was the choice not only to rest for the night but also for Foster to drop in on an amateur theatre group producing one of his plays.

It was during the drive on Monday that the Citizen caught up with them with a FaceTime call to Foster to chat for a while about being Norm Foster. Canada’s premier playwright has produced 88 plays so far and is looking forward to getting back to his latest project as soon as he returns home.

He tells interviewers and audiences that his habit is to rise early, say, four o’clock in the morning, when he goes into his office and writes for six hours, with such joy. His characters take the lead, and Foster admits he frequently has no idea where they will land. As with the dialogue, he lets them talk and sometimes they make him laugh out loud, for the humour flows on its own while the story might also dip into sadness, thoughtfulness, pulling at our heart strings.

“I love to write,” he declares to anyone asking, assuring one and all that he has no plans to quit. He was asked recently if theatres were waiting in anticipation for his next piece, and he nodded yes, grinning at the fact.

Still, there was a time before the plays, and he talked about that, while Nairn kept pace with the traffic and their own schedule. Foster liked playing football and briefly considered a career in the sport. That he did not was a good decision for now; his plays are translated and performed around the world, and he commented, “My plays are produced everywhere. I’m lucky about that; lucky to be able to make my living writing them.”

He said, “I don’t read other plays. I don’t compare myself to other playwrights. You have to put in the work. I like the challenge.”

Norm Foster is not a political person, and his plays never reflect current events nor concern themselves with politics. Sometimes, a title suggests a story, and other times, a passing incident in his life presents a plot. Foster is famous for how real his characters are – how the dialogue sounds the way people really talk.

David Nairn likes to joke that, “Norm doesn’t make up the dialogue – he just listens to people talking in the coffee shops and goes home and writes that.”

Before becoming a playwright, Foster talked about his long-running radio show in Fredericton and that he was a disc jockey as well.

In fact, it was mere happenstance that began his life for the rest of his life, when a friend suggested he come to the local theatre where they were auditioning for a show, and he landed the lead of Elwood P. Dowd. Another few roles and, famously, Foster decided he could write them.

Before all that, he reminisced, “I had a band.” He was the lead guitar and singer. He went on to say, “I played the drums. I still play them.”

From behind the wheel, Nairn contributed, “He is really good.”

Foster grew up in Toronto, but all his creative life has been in Fredericton, a small town he likes very much: “It’s a quiet, small town, very pleasant.”

With two sisters as siblings, he remarked that being the only boy was great; he did not hang out with his sisters, but his family was great – it was a happy time.

He said he wants to write happy stories but still with a message; still writing characters with depth.

Inevitably, the conversation turned to the Foster Festival, founded by Emily Oriold and set in St. Catharines, Ontario. The first time she and Foster met was when she approached him about establishing this, the first (and only) festival named after a living playwright.

When Oriold explained her vision to him, Foster asked her, “Why would you want to do that?”

He agreed in principle to her establishing the festival with his name and that he would work with them if she “could get it going,” to premiere a number of plays there every year. Now 10 years on, with the tremendous energy, enthusiasm, and wisdom of the people involved, and the new plays Norm Foster has contributed to the playbills, the Foster Festival is flourishing.

His praise, “I’m very happy to have a festival named after me.”

Foster will continue writing plays that have a lot of laughs, but with the idea that the characters and their stories are what matter.

When asked if those characters are inspired by people he meets, he shook his head.

“They are all people that I make up,” he said. “I am really happy to keep writing.”

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