Belleville Theatre Guild

View Programme

Press Release

The Belleville Theatre Guild
256 Pinnacle Street, Belleville
(613) 967-1442

Lynette Thibeau, Carol Rutledge, Brianna Leeson, Heather Muir and Craig Parry

Belleville: "A witty, wonderful, sexy, delightful romp in the woods" would best describe A Little Night Music, the Belleville Theatre Guild's upcoming musical says Moira Forrester, director and choreographer of the season's final production.

The talented cast of 17 has been training hard to bring a polished presentation of the incredible music by Stephen Sondheim. The vocal music is being directed by David Farmer, while the orchestra including Tom Deitzel on piano, Linda Minty on cello, John Beach on bass, to name a few, will be conducted by John MacFarlane. An interesting innovation is that the score is written in ¾ or waltz time.

For an exciting change the pit band will be in view for this production, they'll be pumping out the tunes from behind some of the birch trees in the onstage forest, created by set designer Perry Poupore.

"I wanted to have the musicians visible in this show," said Forrester. "The musical accompaniment is underscoring much of the dialogue and is integral to the magic of this production. I thought we should get them out of the backstage where we usually have them and put them into the production for the actors to hear them better and for audience to enjoy them. “

The play is based on Swedish director Ingmar Bergman's 1955 film, Smiles of a Summer Night. The book was written by Hugh Wheeler. It opened on Broadway in 1973 and features the famous song Send In The Clowns.
The mood of this production has elements of Shakespeare's A Midsummer Night's Dream, with love and romance going into overdrive when the "muses", a group of six young actors, decide to interfere in the lives of the mortals around them. The director established a visible/invisible rule for the Sextet who play and sing those roles. They come and go into scenes and affect the main characters. They set up each scene like a game board and then manipulate the characters at key moments. The results are rather chaotic and farcical, but, it all comes to a delightful, satisfying ending.

The cast features Craig Parry as the middle aged Fredrik, a successful lawyer and his young trophy wife, Anne played by Heather Thiessen, with whom he has never consummated their eleven month marriage. A very important character is Desiree Armfeldt, Frederik’s former lover, a prominent self absorbed actress, played by Heather Muir. Her current lover is Count Malcolm, played by John O’Connor. Also performing are Carol Rutledge, Lynette Thibeau, Brianna Leeson, Joseph Pockkaj and Maija Thompson. The roles of the muses are performed by Melissa Jeffrey, Ben Mahaffy, Laura Matthews, John-Ross Parks, Ryan Zaback and Sonya Zaback.

Be sure to see this final treat of the season offered at The Theatre Guild's Pinnacle Playhouse, 256 Pinnacle Street. The show runs for three weeks from May 27 – June 13. Tickets are just $22.00 and are available by calling 613 967 1442

Submitted by Debra Tosh