A new play from one of the most prolific playwrights in Canada is being performed for the very first time this week in our area.
Upper Canada Playhouse in Morrisburg is hosting the first production of Doris and Ivy in the Home, a new play from Norm Foster.
Foster has been writing for the stage since the early 1980s, and has written more than 60 plays that have been produced all across the country.
He was inducted into the Order of Canada, an award issued by the government to celebrate “people who make extraordinary contributions to the nation,” in 2017 for his work.
Jesse Collins, the director of the production, gives us a synopsis of the play.
“The show is about three people that live in a retirement home in Canmore, Alberta,” he says. “It starts with the meeting of Doris and Ivy – Doris has just moved in, Ivy lives there. There’s a wonderful old guy named Arthur, who has designs on one of them.”
Collins says he’s been close friends with Foster since they worked together on a production in Toronto nearly forty years ago.
“It’s a real feather in the cap of Upper Canada Playhouse,” he says. “Norm doesn’t allow just every theatre to do world premieres of his plays, but he’s got a lot of faith in this theatre, and certainly in the team that works here.
This isn’t the first time a play by Foster had its world premiere locally. Two of his other plays premiered at the Upper Canada Playhouse, in 2014 and 2008.
The very first showing of Doris and Ivy in the Home is happening on June 2nd at 8:00 PM. After that, it’ll be showing multiple times a week until June 26th.
The Upper Canada Playhouse website has all the info you’ll need to get tickets.