The ambitious Laketown Players at Saltcoats are working now on their ninth annual dinner theatre production. Having in the past produced such plays as The Black Bonspiel of Wullie MacCrimmon & The Kite (both plays by W.O Mitchell) and hilarious comedies like The Beverley Hillbillies, and last year’s humorous and poignant The Scrap Heap Kids and The Alley Cat, they have this year returned to a classic 1970’s comedy The Pink Panther Strikes Again.
The Panther Movie series starring Peter Sellers told the story of the unbelievably incompetent but somehow successful Detective Jacques Clouseau in a series of impossible adventures.
In the Pink Panther Strikes Again, Clouseau faces not only Paul Dreyfus (once his long suffering boss now raving lunatic) but also a host of international assassins determined to have control of Dr. Hugo Fassbender’s Doomsday Machine and the future of the world. A little romance adds further complication to Clouseau’s life and the ‘case’.
Audiences will delight in Jesse Baron’s portrayal of Clouseau, Steve Farquharson as the over the edge lunatic Dreyfus, Joan Wilson as the love struck but duty burdened Olga, and the large cast of characters who complicate or complement the drama as it unfolds.
Returning cast members include Orville and Marilyn Herron, Kirk Flaman, Martin Phillips, Gidge Trepanier, Candice Baron, Lisa Kruger,the troupe welcome newcomers Lorne Lauer, Josh and Allyson Beynon, Mike Farquharson.
Opening night, with full beef dinner preceding the production, is Thursday February 5 in the Saltcoats Community Hall. Dinner Theatre productions follow on Friday and Saturday evenings and the last show is the Sunday dessert theatre and matinee performance.
This ambitious community theatre group will no sooner pack away the scripts and props from the Pink Panther than they will begin practicing for a presentation of Steve Farquharson’s original play, Peanuts and CrackerJacks, that will feature most of the original cast from 2010. Dates for this dinner theatre are April 30, May 1 & 2.
For tickets or information please call Phyllis McCallum at 306-744-2990. Proceeds this year are directed to the Saltcoats Curling Club in support of the New Ice Plant installed this past fall.
