SALTCOATS - It’s the dawn of another year, and that means the the Laketown Players from Saltcoats are preparing for their annual Dinner Theatre Production.
As has become something of a tradition for the theatre troupe the chosen play for 2025 is again by local playwright Steve Farquharson.
And this one: “Flanagan’s Peacock” is something of a family affair for Farquharson as it is based on a short story his daughter wrote for a creative writing class in university.
Farquharson said working off his daughter’s story worked out quite well.
“Once I have a good plot to make a decent story, the plays sort of come naturally to me,” he told Yorkton This Week.
“But getting that good idea is the hard part.”
That’s where the short story came in.
“Jessica (my daughter) wrote a short story for a creative writing class that I really liked,” said Farquharson. “The prof had asked them to write whatever they liked, but it had to involve a peacock. Jessica used some old family stories and incorporated them with the idea that peacock can be a pretty good guard animal on a farm.
“I thought it had a lot of potential as a play, and with her permission, I adapted it into a play.
“Jessica seemed to think I did a good job of it and only had a few suggestions for changes to my original script -- which I definitely incorporated.”
As is usually the case this play has its shares of laughs.
“It’s a light-hearted comedy,’ said Farquharson. “I enjoy writing comedy. Making people laugh makes me feel good.”
In this case the aforementioned peacock figures predominantly.
“The story involves a couple of con artists who come to town and try to scam the local residents,” said Farquharson. “The peacock, Percy, more or less terrorizes the entire town, and isn’t particularly popular, at least not until he turns his attentions to the con artists.”
Of course it helps Farquharson is an old hand at writing scripts for the group.
“This is the eighth script I’ve written,” he said. “I still think the first one (Peanuts and Cracker Jacks) is my favourite, but The Salamander’s Tale and The Boys at Sunset would be close seconds.”
It is something Farquharson said he enjoys undertaking.
“Once I get at it, I enjoy writing,” he said.
“But I’m quite the procrastinator. It takes about two weeks to write a draft, then I edit as much as I can before practices start. I really should edit a bit more before I take it to the cast, but I’ve said that pretty much every play I’ve written.”
The Dinner Theatre’s started back in 2006.
“We’ve done one every year since, with a few years off during COVID,” said Farquharson.
“All of us (The Laketown Players) are volunteers. The artists, actors, directors, tech crew, those who cook and serve the suppers and dessert theatre, all do it out of a sense of community, to support worthy causes, and to have some fun together.”
And as a fundraiser it has been hugely successful raising in the neighbourhood of $300,000 for various projects around town over the years.
This year, the Town Hall, the Regional Park, and Historical Cemetery Revitalization project will all get significant funds from the play, noted Farquharson.
Ticket sales are already going well already, he added, but there are still plenty of tickets for Thursday night and Sunday afternoon. Tickets can be purchased by calling Shirley Pearson at (306)-716-6564.
