Four Incredible Venues, Nine Different Shows, Eighty-Four Performances
The Northumberland Players – who are we? Three hundred volunteers, all with unique skills, but with one single purpose: to mount and perform high-quality, affordable theatre for our community. We are passionate about live theatre and it shows. You will find us in four different venues: our home, the Firehall Theatre; the Best Western Plus Cobourg Inn & Convention Centre; the Concert Hall at Victoria Hall; and the Capitol Theatre.
The Best Western Plus Dinner Theatre Shows
The formula is simple this year. Funny plays and great food. If you have been to the Best Western for dinner theatre, then you know you can expect laughs with family and friends. For those newbies, I promise you an evening like no other.
Gibson & Sons (by Kristen Da Silva) won the Stage West Comedy Award. Running a small-town funeral home for your father can really dampen your love life. So what do you do? Meet your future wife online and bring her to Canada from Russia to meet the family. Did I mention it’s a surprise and the sister comes too?
Social Security (by Andrew Bergman) is a hilarious Broadway comedy about a married couple whose domestic tranquility is shattered upon the arrival of the wife’s goody-goody nerd of a sister, her uptight CPA husband, and her archetypal Jewish mother. They try to save their college student daughter from the horrors of living only for sex.
Enchanted April (by Matthew Barber) is a comedy about two London housewives who pool their savings and escape from their marriages to a villa in 1920s Italy. But these wives are forced to take along two upper-class strangers to help defray the cost of the holiday. It becomes far from a holiday as the four women clash more than relax. It gets even worse, if you can imagine, when the husbands arrive unexpectedly. This is a charming and funny play.
The Firehall Shows
The Firehall Theatre is a magical venue. It seats 55 and each play transports the audience to unique places through clever set design and wonderful period costumes. A porch of a Canadian farmhouse, the sitting room of an 1894 home in Norway and a boathouse in 1944 Missouri are the places we will take you to in this year’s plays. Come see how we do this. Come feel how we do this.
Willow Quartet (by Canadian playwright Joan Burrows) explores grief in the aftermath of a family loss. The lives of four people crash together in this play of hope and redemption.
A Doll’s House, Part 2 (by Lucas Hnath) is more than a sequel to Henrik Ibsen’s 1879 classic play. It explores the “rules of society and gender” in the 19th century, but through contemporary language and humour. How much have we changed since then? This award-winning play is a fresh and unique piece of theatre.
Talley’s Folly (by Lanford Wilson) is a lyrical romantic comedy and winner of the 1980 Pulitzer Prize. This beautifully woven story confirms that love is worth fighting for. This is a perfect show for the spring. It is uplifting, but I promise you, far from fluff.
For the Love of Music
If you love music, then we have more than enough to satisfy your need to tap your foot and hum along. We bring you three totally different musical experiences in two beautiful venues.
Concert Hall at Victoria Hall
Christmas Live at Victoria Hall has now become a tradition. The mixture of beautiful seasonal songs and storytelling in cabaret seating in the beautiful, historic Victoria Concert Hall is just what we need before the holidays. The show features some of the best vocalists and musicians in the county.
The Northumberland Players Youth Theatre performs Elf – The Musical JR. Based on the beloved holiday film, this hilarious fish-out-of-water comedy is a title known the world over. If history repeats itself, school performances and public matinees will sell out at Victoria Hall.
Capitol Theatre, Port Hope
The Northumberland Players loves our partnership with the Capitol Theatre. Our last three musicals have been extravaganzas: Chicago, Into the Woods and recently Disney’s Beauty and the Beast. Our musicals provide you with the Broadway experience locally. Run, don’t walk, to the box office because they sell out.
Our big musical this year is Something Rotten! This hilarious musical took Broadway by storm. Can two brothers compete with some rockstar called William Shakespeare? They will have to invent something new: the musical. Welcome to the Renaissance! With incredible costumes, large dance numbers and a live orchestra, this new musical is full of belly laughs – and all you need to know about Shakespeare is that he’s the Elvis of the Renaissance and he can sing and dance!