A&E

To Comment on this article Click Here

If you're looking for some real belly-laughs, get a ticket to "Wingfield's Lost and Found," the Bluewater Summer Playhouse's final production of the season which opened to a capacity crowd last night (Aug. 31).

In the one-man show, Rod Beattie plays Walt Wingfield, as well as about 20 different characters each with his/her own voice and idiosynchracies. For a few moments, he even plays the family dog.

The play, written by Dan Needles, is the seventh in the series about Wingfield Farm where stock-broker-turned-farmer Walt Wingfield spends his time when he's not working in the city two days a week. It is based on letters Walt sends to the editor of the local newspaper.

This time, in the midst of a record drought, the wells on the Seventh Line are drying up. As Walt and the gang search for a new well, they are distracted by a myriad of incidents so ridiculous as to make the audience erupt in laughter from beginning to end.

At one point, Walt learns that his cows are out - meaning they have broken through the fence and are wandering through the township fields. In some classic scenes, Walt's neighbour, Freddy, and his nephews embark on a search for the cows, while text-messaging on their cellphones.

In the words of the wise Squire, "Having those two nephews helping is like having four good men not show up."

Out of all the characters, Freddy is the funniest, with his stuttering, wide-eyed, hands-in-the-back-pockets stance.

Beattie is amazing as he quickly and effortlessly switches from one character to the next. And the audience is convinced it's Walt speaking at one point and then Freddy the next, and then the Squire or Don or Delbert or even Walt's wife Maggie.

More than an environmental comedy, this play also reminds us that searching can turn up more than what is lost, and teaches us the value of more than what is found.

^{for world news, books, sports, movies ...}

Tuesday, August 31, 2010