From left, Jennifer Matthies-Lacombe, Kelsey Ruhl, Laura Hokstad and Kaitlyn Stewart rehearse The Life and Death of John the Milkman. PHOTO BY LIAM BERTI
What better way to take a step back into the past than to be dropped into a 1959 suburban kitchen and ride alongside four housewives trying to dispose of a dead body?
Thanks to local writer and director Joshua Bainbridge and the Gateway Theatre Guild, you can take that journey this weekend with the performance of The Life and Death of John the Milkman.
On Wednesday night, Bainbridge and his cast of seven kicked off their first of a four-night lineup of performances at Ecole Publique Odyssée.
“The performance, I thought, went extremely well,” Bainbridge said after the opening night. “I sat in the back of the theatre to see how the audience was reacting to it and they were very positive and engaged in the show.
“It was a tremendous evening and I think it is only going to get better every night,” he added.
While trying to remain tight-lipped about his dark comedy, he said the four housewives find themselves in a very irregular situation that gets comically violent.
Bainbridge originally created the play for the On the Edge Fringe Festival last August, and that he binge-wrote the piece in a matter of eight days, riding the high of creative outpouring.
Since then though, the 25-year-old has expanded on what made the original version such a hit with the local crowds and turned Milkman into a two-act feature.
“I decided that I didn’t want to add any new scenes; I just wanted to build on what we already had,” said Bainbridge. “That meant I wanted to explore the characters a little bit more and I got to use the wonderful things that all of the actresses brought to their roles the first time as my inspiration for where I was going to push their characters in the second version."
Those four protagonists he speaks of are played by local actresses Kelsey Ruhl, Jennifer Matthies-Lacombe, Kaitlyn Stewart, and Laura Hokstad.
Bainbridge said witnessing the way they all contributed something unique to the original version made him want to create an environment where those traits could flourish even further.
“Kelsey brings a uniting energy to the group, Jen brings the confidence and comedy, Kaitlyn brings the loveable vulnerability, and Laura brings the attitude and backbone,” Bainbridge explained. “I took those things that the women made shine in their characters and tried to push each of them in those directions.
The supporting three roles are performed by Dillon Lafrance, Brad Carr and Caleb Geden.
“I think the show got exponentially better and that is something that is really gratifying for me; the more work that goes into it, the better it gets,” Bainbridge added. “It has been very rewarding having the experience of going back to it and turning it into something that, in my opinion, is better than before.”
The writer, director, sound engineer, and set designer also said that evolving Milkman to the point of being picked up by the Gateway Theatre Guild is something that has helped him grow exponentially as well.
“I feel that now, more than ever, I have the confidence to start moving on to another level; start trying to get my writing and plays out there beyond Northern Ontario and out into the world,” he said.
“This has given me the confidence to just believe in that and go for it.”
The final three performances are at Ecole Publique Odyssée at 7:30 p.m, with doors opening at 7 p.m. Tickets can be reserved online or purchased at the door.
For more information, click here: http://www.gatewaytheatreguild.ca/blog/id/111