The end of summer means the beginning of another season of Elmira Theatre Company, and the debut show of the local company’s 2013-2014 season is another Canadian theatre perennial.
The Melville Boys, the second of more than 50 plays by Norm Foster (reportedly Canada’s most-produced playwright, with such works as The Affections of May and Wrong for Each Other to his credit), chronicles a tense reunion between brothers Lee and Owen Melville at their uncle’s lakeside cabin, and the unexpected arrival of their sisters.
“It’s a small voyage of discovery for the two brothers – rediscovering each other, and reconnecting,” said director Thom Smith. “There has been a disconnect. We don’t know if it’s a lifelong disconnect or more recent, but they reconnect by the end of the play. They get back together and move on with their lives.
“Anyone who has siblings can say to themselves, ‘Oh yeah – been there, done that.’”
Smith says that one reason this 1984 play has been so often restaged is that it offers plenty to identify with.
“Norm Foster is very good at creating stories that people relate to. He’s got a great stock of plays, some of which are just there to be funny, some of which have a good, wholesome edge to them, and Melville Boys is one of those plays that appeals to people.
“A lot of people by the end of the play can sit there and feel, ‘Yeah, I’ve been there, done that.’ They make that kind of a connection.”
Like much of Foster’s work, The Melville Boys has a very delicate tone – humourous, but in a very quiet, human way. Smith says that achieving this particular balance with his collaborators was surprisingly easy.
“I’ve been very lucky with my actors. They got it fairly early on in the rehearsal process – that it was a humanity-with-humour type of play. There is a level of sincerity in the play that had to come through in their characters.”
He added, “It wasn’t just about going for laughs. There was an understanding that, yes, there were times in the play when it would be tense and emotional, but you would offset that with humour.”
The cast includes Elmira Theatre Company veterans Stephen Whetstone (last seen in another ETC production of a Foster play, Sadie Flynn Comes to Big Oak) and Steve Robinson as the titular brothers, and Tracy Leighton as their older sister. The newest face will be Lindsay Grisebach, a recent graduate of the University of Waterloo drama program. “She’s sort of the new blood, but all of the actors have been great to work with,” said Smith.
Making his directorial debut with The Melville Boys, Smith has been working in various capacities at ETC for the past five years, including with Elmira’s one-act entry in the 2012 Minifest in Kincardine. He has also worked at Guelph Little Theatre, but finds Elmira particularly special.
“I first started at Elmira,” said Smith. “Elmira is a very welcoming group to work with. They have a very good, strong core of dedicated volunteers who make the process a lot easier.
“Because of that, it has allowed me to grow into this role of directing, coming from the acting and technical side of things. It’s a great group where you can explore all those different facets of theatre.”
The Melville Boys opens next month at the Elmira Theatre Company (75 Howard Ave.). It runs September 12-14 and 19-21 at 8 p.m., and September 15 at 2:30 p.m. Tickets will be available soon at www.elmiratheatre.com.
Other productions in the company’s 2013-2014 season are Having Hope at Home (November), If We Are Women (February), and Too Many Cooks (April/May).
