The audience quickly got into the fun world created by the zany characters of Stop the Presses last week, a presentation of the St. Andrew’s United Church Players.
The dessert theatre was presented the evenings of Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday, playing before a sold-out crowd each night. According to the author, Tim Kelly, the play can also be called “She’s Not My Type” based on the fact that the entire play takes place inside a newspaper office.
The first scene takes place in the office of The Canora Clarion, the newspaper in the Town of Four Corners. The second scene takes place at the same office but it is on the election day for a new mayor.
A lot of humour was found in the name of the town, Four Corners. Apparently, the newspaper office was built right on the corners of the rural municipalities of Good Lake, Buchanan, Keys and Sliding Hills, so depending where one stood, he or she would be just a step away from being in a different municipality.
Ron Hoehn, who played the sheriff Jack Newsworthy, had the task of explaining the origin of the name. The antics he used to hop from one municipality to the other was later the basis of some mocking provided by the villain Sleazy Tab Lloyd, played by Brett Watson.
Karen Wishlow played Aspen Print, the editor of The Canora Clarion, and selling the newspapers was Judy Paige, played by Darcey Lemaire. Judy Schick played Granny Print, the aging typesetter who owned The Canora Clarion.
The story unfolds as Sleazy Tab Lloyd confronts the newspaper editor to complain about her damning editorials that questioned his integrity and honesty. However, he felt compelled to continue advertising in the paper because he was trying to be elected as mayor. As the editor put it, she would rather not do any business with Lloyd, but needed to because of a severe lack of advertising revenue.
In speaking with his hired help, a simple but endearing character called Panhandle (played by Ray. St. Mars), Lloyd reveals that the railroad was going to be coming through Four Corners and if he was in control of town’s administration, he could make a lot of money on the deal.
It was difficult to describe the relationship between Lloyd and his would-be partner in crime named Chiffon Delure (played by Marg Janick Grayston). It started with her trying to shoot him, stab him and even use a blackjack (the weapon) on him, all because of his escaping with the loot from a previous scheme. But, it wasn’t long before she became a willing partner in his new scheme in Four corners. The author described her as “lovely, but not to be trusted.”
Delure also had her own hired help, Annabelle, who is described as “her winsome maid.”
With the characters established, the play unfolded with Lloyd purchasing the newspaper in a shady deal, and writing editorials about what a great man he was and what a valuable asset he would be to the community as the mayor.
Sheriff Jack Newsworthy created a solid foundation to describe the good and honest people of Four Corners. His simplistic and idealistic way of viewing the world, especially being an expert on the topic of how Four Corners got its name, created an underpinning to the story line which became the background for many of the humorous verbal exchanges throughout the play. It was his need to explain Four Corners’ history by literally hopping from one rural municipality to the other that created the comical anticipation experienced by the audience.
Since one of the story lines was about the pending election, town citizens such as Mrs. Grisley (Dianne Manahan) and Mrs. Pickles (Joy Stusek) played strong supporting roles to explain the community’s dislike of Sleazy Tab Lloyd. Even though the community did not hold the other candidate for mayor, Edward Torial (played by Thom Carnahan), in high regard, Grisley and Pickles made it be known that he was a better choice than Lloyd.
Unwilling to take any chances, Lloyd and Delure replaced the ballots with their own, so when it came down to counting the votes, it appeared Lloyd won by a landslide. It was Sheriff Newsworthy that came to the rescue by proving the ballot box had been tampered with. The fake ballot box contained votes on blue paper where the real ballots were printed on white paper.
During the course of meeting the town folk, the audience was introduced to another zany character, Dusty (played by Vern Schick), who was a pony express rider who happened to lose his pony.
As in all good stories, the play concluded with the sheriff capturing the crooks, the sheriff proposing to Aspen Print, and everything in Four Corners returned to normal.
Val Morozoff was the director for the play.
Phyllis Parnetta, who was the prompter, actually created many of the humorous situations on stage. The fun rapport became obvious when the actors needed a little prompting when a line was forgotten.
The cast members were responsible for their costumes and the props. Taking care of the posters, programs and tickets were Monica Chupa, Kelsey Chupa and Val Morozoff.
Gerry Bellows was the dessert convenor.
The door workers were Oney Pollock, Irene Bahrey and Audrey Hoehn.
