RuBarb
Productions’ fourth season opens with Wingfield’s Folly
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Lisa
Goudy/Times-Herald
RuBarb
Productions’ program for Wingfield’s Folly is shown.
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By Lisa Goudy
It
takes a talented person to successfully star in a one-person play.
This
is especially the case when that one person is playing multiple characters. You
have to hold the stage on your own for several hours to captivate the audience.
Of
course, part of the success of a one-person play has to do with the script, the
set, the costumes and the lighting, but without a lead actor who can captivate
the audience with his or her performance for that long, the play would fall
flat.
Such
an actor with extraordinary talent is Rod Beattie in the one-man Wingfield
plays that follow Walt Wingfield, a stockbroker turned farmer living near the
fictional small town of Larkspur, Ont. in Persephone Township, and his
misadventures while attempting to make a living in the agriculture business.
Thursday
night, RuBarb Productions’ newest season opened with Wingfield’s Folly, the
third of seven Wingfield plays at the Mae Wilson Theatre at the Moose Jaw
Cultural Centre. The first play in the series, Letter From Wingfield Farm, was
RuBarb’s first show of its 2014-15 season, and the second play in the series,
Wingfield’s Progress was RuBarb’s first show of its 2015-16 season.
Wingfield’s
Folly follows Walt Wingfield’s adventures during his third year on the farm. In
it, he finally pinpoints the economic source of his farm troubles, but his new
course leads him to his most troubling crisis. He sets up a closed economy with
his neighbours and prints his own currency, all while falling in love.
The third installment of the show doesn’t
disappoint.
Of
course, if you’ve seen the first two Wingfield plays, you have all of the
background, but even if you were a newcomer to the world of Walt Wingfield,it
is a joy ride that you can follow easily and enjoy.
Beattie’s
different voices, gestures, his wit and his captivating stage performance not
only entertains with laughter, but also with solemnity and an overall engaging
performance.
The
way he pauses for dramatic effect, the way he moves, the way he speaks and the
way he changes costumes makes it easy to follow what’s going on and to enjoy
every moment of it.
Beattie
has lots of experience playing Walt Wingfield, so much so that he really has
become Walt Wingfield and the other characters in Walt’s life. On Aug. 4, 2013,
Beattie’s matinee performance of the first Wingfield play, Letter From
Wingfield Farm, at the Belfry Theatre in Victoria, B.C. marked Beattie’s 4,500th
performance of a Wingfield play in a little under 30 years.
While
one-person plays aren’t for everyone, the Wingfield series are great plays to
sit back, relax and laugh a lot.
Thanks
to Beattie’s performance, it’s easy for the audience to fall in love with Walt
Wingfield and his adventures on the farm. The humour and the struggles Walt
experiences in these plays especially hits home in Saskatchewan where
agriculture plays such a vital role. It’s something we can relate to,
regardless of whether we’ve lived or worked on a farm.
Wingfield’s
Folly doesn’t disappoint and is a great way to spend an evening or an
afternoon.
RuBarb
Productions’ Wingfield Folly runs until Sunday with various showtimes. For more
information, contact RuBarb Productions at 306-693-1771 or go online at
rubarb.ca.
