Theatre in the Country is reopening after a six-month closure by producing the two-person musical The Last 5 Years.
Theatre in the Country, a family run Dinner Theatre in Langley, is launching its newly announced Socially Distant Season with the Tony Award Winning production by Jason Robert Brown. The show runs from Sept. 10 to 26 and features a full roast beef or vegetarian meal served in a no-contact fashion.
Drama Desk award-winner The Last Five Years is Brown’s intimate window into a couple’s complicated marriage.
Cathy, a struggling actress, and Jamie, a budding novelist on the brink of wild success, are 20-somethings in New York who meet, fall in love, marry, and divorce over the span of five years.
Cathy tells the story from the end of their marriage; Jamie begins from when they first meet. As the musical unfolds, Cathy moves backward in time to the beginning of the relationship as Jamie moves toward the end; they meet only once, in the middle, at their wedding.
Since its Off-Broadway premiere in 2002, Brown’s funny, poignant, and devastatingly honest two-person production has enraptured audiences around the world with its spellbinding and emotional score and libretto. This show will ignite and delight you!
The Last 5 Years will feature two veteran performers, Rachel Stephens of Mission and Paul Kobilke of Cloverdale.
Both of these performers are gifted vocalists and actors. Stephens has her Masters’ degree from the world-renowned Royal Conservatoire in Scotland and Kobilke graduated with his BFA from Trinity Western University. They last performed together in The Hunchback of Notre Dame at TIC as Esmeralda and Quasimodo respectively.
Parks, who is also the Artistic Director of Theatre in the Country, has been looking forward to reopening the theatre space since they shuttered their doors on March 15th.
From April to August the theatre company kept their patrons and performers active by offering weekly costumed readers theatre via zoom for a Pay-What-You-Can rate. It was a raging success, and during the days of COVID-19 closures, TIC was able to engage 58 actors from their homes in 21 plays online. Actors from the Lower Mainland, Prince George, Kelowna, Victoria and Edmonton participated in the effort. They also hosted three authors of theatre pieces they performed from Toronto, Las Vegas and LA which added a great touch to those evenings.
TIC Online welcomed guests from all across North America, Europe, Trinidad, Japan and Australia which has allowed the small community theatre to welcome a worldwide audience. Each play included a talkback with the cast and crew.
Audience seating in the theatre space has been reduced from 200 to 50. Food service is now non-contact, and the big space has lots of ventilation, alternate exits and well signed one-way traffic flow. The other shows in TIC’s Socially Distant Season are all small cast offerings which include the mystery thriller, Sleuth, and The Gift of Magi for the holidays. Also coming to TIC are Murder Mystery Nights, Readers Theatre and a professional guest production of Billy Bishop Goes to War.
Theatre in the Country is located at 5708 Glover Road.
Tickets at the Box Office, 604-259-9737, or at theatreinthecountry.com.
