Drayton Entertainment is back with a story of lives gone by, told on the links.
Norm Foster’s Men’s Foursome hits the stage at the St. Jacobs Country Playhouse on July 13, and runs to the end of the month.
The play surrounds four old friends – Cameron, Rick, Ted and Donnie – meeting up on the golf course for the first time in 20 years as they return for a business school reunion. Director Max Reimer says watching the relationships unfold on the back nine is the best part of the play.
“The four guys haven’t really been in touch, and they get together and they catch up with what has been happening to them over the past 20 years – it is a good mix of just the guys remembering their distant past, and what they discover throughout,” he said, during an afternoon break from the show’s rehearsals. “That is what is so great about Norm’s work. You peel back the layers of the onion. You get to see deeper and deeper into these guys’ lives and personalities. Of course the whole thing is hilarious. It is as funny as anything. As with all Norm’s work, there is some real heart in it. You get to learn all kinds of stuff about their lives. It all starts innocently enough, with a little wager on the game, drinking a couple of beers on the course, but pretty soon they get right into it and they start to reveal a lot more. That is what happens when you get four guys out there for a five hour game.”
Reimer says the show will give the audience a chance to reflect on their own relationships, even if you aren’t itching to get on the course yourself.
“Even people who have no interest in golf will still have a great time. It is interesting with Norm’s work. There is such a resonance with our lives as the audience,” he said. “There is something about seeing our lives played out. There is something about the shared experience. What you take away from this, and all good comedies, is just a greater compassion and understanding about what it is like to be a human being on this planet.”
Then of course, there are big laughs.
“There are these wonderful moments of compassion, which you feel for these guys even though they have that jocular ribbing going on, you see that they are great guys. There are surprises, and humans surprise each other all the time as well with our own humanity,” said Reimer. “I think it is two hours in the theatre of having some good laughs with friends, but then it is the drive home where you get to think about what it is like to be a social creature like we humans are. It is a lovely form of both mental and your humour – the funny bone and the brain get involved.”
The Drayton Entertainment production of Men’s Foursome opens July 13, running to July 30 at the St. Jacobs Country Playhouse. Tickets, with prices starting at $26, are available online at www.draytonentertainment.com, in person at the theatre box office, or by calling (519) 638-5555 or toll free 1-855-DRAYTON (372-9866).
