Although Saskatoon may be a relatively small city, it’s big on theatre. There’s never a shortage of great plays and musicals to enjoy in the City of Bridges, and December is no exception.
In this column I explore a few shows you can take in this month. These productions are sure to offer a great way to unwind and savour the holiday season.
DEC. 6-14
ETHAN CLAYMORE
Saskatoon’s Mini Fridge Theatre Company is serving up a holiday comedy from Canadian playwright Norm Foster during its December dinner theatre events, which are offered in partnership with the German Cultural Centre.
Ethan Claymore, directed by Elizabeth Reynolds, stars Larry Fitzgerald, Rob Reynolds, Rick Rochon, Logan Weckert and Trillian Reynoldson. The show centres on the character Ethan Claymore, who is focused on his failing egg farming business while mourning his wife. Things change when Douglas, a determined, curmudgeonly neighbor, sets up Ethan with the new schoolteacher, Teresa, resulting in Ethan opening himself up to the possibility of love.
“Our team has several decades of theatre experience — both on stage and behind the scenes — and it’s important to share that with the community,” said company co-founder Michael Neuert. “Come together and enjoy a few laughs with the people you care about this holiday season.”
The dinner show dates are Dec. 6, 7, 8, 13 and 14, with the doors opening at 5:30 p.m., dinner at 6 p.m. and the show starting at 7:30 p.m. Tickets are $50 plus taxes. There is also a matinee lunch on Dec. 9 at 12:30 p.m., with the show starting at 2 p.m. Tickets are $40 plus taxes. Tickets can be purchased by calling the German Cultural Centre at 306-244-6869.
DEC. 7-23
JACK AND THE SNOW QUEEN
Dancing Sky Theatre, based in Meacham, Sask., is keeping its holiday tradition alive by offering the seventh wacky and festive instalment in its popular Prairie Panto series.
Jack and The Snow Queen is a collaborative effort that involved the cast and crew getting together to create a hilarious show from scratch to entertain the whole family. Loosely based on Hans Christian Andersen’s The Snow Queen, Jack must rescue his mother before the Snow Queen turns her heart into ice.
“The panto is a blast,” said first-time cast member Jenna Bernbaum. “It’s so much fun; you’re thrown into the thick of everything. You’re making puppets, creating music and writing a script while everyone’s just trying to have fun and laughs along the way.”
For tickets, call 306-653-5191 or visit dancingskytheatre.com or ontheboards.ca.
DEC. 8-9
CHRISTMAS PRESENCE
Burnt Thicket Theatre opened Live Five’s 15th season in October with its hit production of Every Brilliant Thing. Now the local company is back with Christmas Presence, billed as a “unique mashup of stories and songs that explores the nativity with a messy but joyful hope.”
“This is the fourth year that (artistic director) Steven Waldschmidt and I have organized a Christmas Presence show here in Saskatoon,” said Tim Bratton, the company’s artistic associate.
“Steve and I were looking for something to collaborate on with the limited time we had and were inspired by similar shows that Pacific Theatre in Vancouver has been doing for many years. Pacific Theatre’s artistic director, Ron Reed, gave us his blessing to use the idea and even shared a stack of Christmas stories and scripts to get us started. When Burnt Thicket Theatre moved to Saskatoon last year, Christmas Presence became a Burnt Thicket production.”
Burnt Thicket Theatre describes itself as an independent company that brings awareness to issues in the community and plants seeds for positive social change. Christmas Presence also serves as a fundraiser. The show will be raising support for Burnt Thicket and for an initiative called Stephen’s Backpacks, which provides backpacks with school supplies and Christmas gifts to homeless children or kids at risk of homelessness in the Saskatoon area.
Christmas Presence will feature Bratton, who was recently seen in Pride and Prejudice at Persephone Theatre. It also stars Wanita Bird, who performed in Gordon Tootoosis Nīkānīwin Theatre’s 2017 world premiere of Dominion; Waldschmidt, who appeared in Persephone’s The Resistible Rise of Arturo Ui; and Geordie Cowan and Brendan Andrews.
The production will showcase the music of local recording artist Bird, the recipient of the 2017 Indigenous Music Award for her album Water is Life, as well as Becky Thomas (Best Female Artist winner at the 2011 Native American Music Awards), Wyndham Thiessen and GTNT’s Circle of Voices youth ensemble.
Christmas Presence is set to take place at 7:30 p.m. on Dec. 8 at Studio 914, located at 914 20th St. West. There will also be a show on Dec. 9 at 7:30 p.m. at College Park Covenant Church, located at 909 Acadia Dr. Admission is by suggested donation of $10 at the door and/or a new stuffed animal for Stephen’s Backpacks.
“The Christmas season can be both wonderful and challenging for people, laden with joy and fraught with pain – sometimes at the same time,” said Bratton. “In our Christmas Presence productions, we’ve always tried to acknowledge this complexity. We hope that the songs we sing and the stories we tell bring people into the best feelings of Christmas, but we also acknowledge the mess and the muck of life as well – kind of like we see in the dirty stable of the original nativity story.”
UNTIL DEC. 23
FIDDLER ON THE ROOF
Persephone Theatre has announced yet another extension — the third — for its wildly popular holiday offering, Fiddler on the Roof. Directed by Peter Jorgensen, the beloved musical will now run until Dec. 23 at the Remai Arts Centre.
Known for its classic tunes such as Matchmaker, If I Were a Rich Man and Sunrise, Sunset, Fiddler on the Roof won nine Tony Awards when it debuted in 1964. It also became the first Broadway musical to surpass 3,000 performances and became a smash hit in Japan, where there have been hundreds of revivals since 1967.
Fiddler on the Roof continues to please modern-day audiences with its songs of celebration, love and loss. The story centres on a poor milkman named Tevye, who is devoted to his five daughters and who tries to instill in them traditional values during a time of change and upheaval in Russia.
Due to continued popular demand, Persephone Theatre has added five additional public performances: Dec. 20 (8 p.m.), Dec. 21 (8 p.m.), Dec. 22 (8 p.m.) and Dec. 23 (2 p.m. and 8 p.m.)
Tickets range from $52-$61 and are available by calling the Persephone box office at 306-384-7727 or by going to persephonetheatre.org.