Rosebud theatre opens with a Friendly Face
$38,000 for a Friendly Face is nutty comedy with a heart
Alison (Jesse Anderson), a young flower delivery woman gives Esther (Jeany Van Meltebeke) some advice about a hair “do-over”.
$38,000 for a Friendly Face, winner of the 2007 Samuel French Canadian Playwrights Contest, and a masterpiece of Ontario playwright Kristin Shepherd kicks off at the Rosebud Theatre’s from March 16 to May 12.
Artistic Director Morris Ertman explains that the play is just as the title suggests. What makes a person valuable? How much good can you find in a life?”
“Now, the story itself is pretty ‘nutty’. Two estranged sisters meet each other at their mother’s ‘celebration of Life’. The problem is there is no one there to celebrate but them. The Last Supper Committee is in a panic to try and prepare for the disastrous ‘celebration’, and in the ensuing chaos, a kind of grace emerges that just might salvage the
memory of a life, and more importantly the relationships of those left behind.”
The play starts at the Sunshine Chapel in the funeral home of a suburban town where Mrs. Bronwyn Bain has died and her estranged daughters have arrived for her ‘non funeral’. The daughters, Jane Bain and Annie Bain, arrive for their mother’s funeral, not having seen their mother in years. Meanwhile Matt Watson (NATHAN SCHMIDT), the new funeral director is determined to find the ‘good things’ to make this a fitting event.
The problem continues to escalate as we discover that Matt has no clue how to create an appropriate celebration of life for a woman that nobody liked. Neither does he know how to deal with the Last Supper Committee, consisting of a group of chatty women responsible for the meals for funeral events.
Preparations for a ‘Celebration of Life’ deteriorate on every front and there is the very real possibility that no one will come to celebrate Bronwyn Bain’s passing. Back in the kitchen, The Last Supper Committee members, along with Alison, a young woman who refuses to leave after delivering flowers for the funeral, but heads as food
confrontations arise around the subject of death.
Category: Arts, Entertainment
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