What: Shakespeare by the Sea
Where: Fisherman’s Wharf Park, the Roost, Nanaimo Waterfront Plaza
When: June 28-Aug. 7, Aug. 9-14, Sept. 8-11, Sept. 16-19
Tickets: $29, or $25 for a Green Ticket (for students, seniors, walkers and cyclists) VictoriaTicket.ca, Visitor Centre, 812 Wharf St., or cash at door
Info: VancouverIslandShakespeareArts.com
When Steve Duck recalls Vancouver Island Shakespeare Arts Society’s experiences performing outdoors at Clover Point and how they were “blown away,” he isn’t paying the oceanfront landmark a compliment.
It’s not that members of the local theatre company didn’t enjoy performing the Bard’s works in an open white tent there. It’s just that when those waterfront winds gusted, they literally blew the performers away.
“Mother Nature has not been kind to us,” said Duck, executive director of the company, which is setting up at Fisherman’s Wharf Park for its fifth season outdoors. “We started at Holland Point five years ago and discovered it was an environmentally protected area for butterflies, and then we went to Clover Point.”
After being windswept in Fairfield, organizers spoke to the Greater Victoria Harbour Authority about Ogden Point as an alternative, before scheduling conflicts ruled it out as a new home.
“So we went to the city and worked with the James Bay Neighbourhood Association and, really, I think this will be the best venue in terms of accessibility for residents and visitors,” he said.
This summer’s three shows — Othello, Much Ado About Nothing and Richard the Lionhearted, a homegrown Shakespeare-inspired play — will be staged on the park’s southeast corner. “It’s away from the playground area and doesn’t encroach on Fisherman’s Wharf,” Duck said.
A bonus, he said, is that the funky organic café across from them, Imagine: Studio Café, has agreed to make its washrooms available to theatre patrons.
This summer’s shows will continue to focus on women, a theme the company addressed in Hamlet last year with the start of its Shakespeare and Women project, and will conclude next year with King Lear. “We had the misogyny of Hamlet and his mother, and the domestic abuse this year with Othello, and next year King Lear and his daughters,” he said. “Son and mother, husband and wife, father and daughters.”
Founder and artistic director Robert Light will play Othello, the classic Shakespearean role traditionally played by a black actor. Duck said they “have deracialized” the play with a focus on domestic abuse.
The cast includes Autumn Antonsen as Desdemona, Matt Mathiason as Iago and Corin Wrigley as Cassio.
The Ashton Armoury is providing uniforms, deactivated weapons and “potential extras and ushers in uniform” for Othello, which is being set in Cyprus in the early 1970s, when Canadian soldiers helped keep the peace.
Much Ado About Nothing will feature Brian Thibodeau as Benedick, Sasha Moriarty-Schieven as Beatrice, Colin Mooney as Claudio, Alex Huxter as Hero, Dennis Eberts as Don Pedro and Travis Stanley as Dogberry.
Although Shakespeare’s classic comedy is set in Messina, Duck said it will have the feel of contemporary Victoria in the summer.
Based on the title character’s military exploits during the Crusades in the 12th century, Richard the Lionhearted was written by Wrigley, who plays the title role, and Andrew Axhorn.
The company, which has also performed for three years on the Saanich Peninsula, including at the Beacon Pavilion on Sidney’s waterfront, will perform in a private venue for the first time this year.
Shows will be presented Aug. 9-14 and Sept. 8-11 at the Roost Farm Centre, 9100 East Saanich Rd., where a new 65-seat restaurant is scheduled to open mid-summer. As part of its Vancouver Island touring program, shows will also be performed in Nanaimo’s Pioneer Waterfront Plaza Sept. 16-19.
The society’s summer season officially kicks off Saturday with Bandy with the Bard, a fundraising event at Pacific Opera Victoria’s Baumann Centre, 925 Balmoral Rd. Vignettes from this summer’s three shows will be performed. There will also be live music, a silent auction, food and beverages. The 2017 season lineup will also be announced.
Tickets are $29 and include a ticket to a play during the season’s first week, June 28-July 3.
