Category: 24-25

Bronte Goes to Mainstage!

Congratulations to director Sylvia Swift and  cast and crew of Bronte: The World Without, winner of this year’s Best Production at Theatre BC’s Mainstage , held at Fort Saint John in July 2025.  Mercury Players’ show was chosen among six provincial entries.  We also won the category of “Best Props and Set Decoration.”  

The people in the photo below are: from bottom L. to R. Genevieve Charbonneau, Julia Lalonde, Zoe Nickerson  Top L. to R.  Kara Van Rinjin, Kim Liptrap, Dan Leckey, Margie Pringle, Sylvia Swift

https://www.cowichanvalleycitizen.com/entertainment/mercury-players-makes

Constellations, by Nick Payne and being staged by Duncan’s Mercury Players, is a love story told over multiple realities.  

A beekeeper and a theoretical physicist meet at a party.  In that single moment, an unfathomable multitude of possibilities unfolds.  Their chance meeting might blossom into a meaningful relationship or a brief affair, or it might lead to nothing at all.  

Each step along these possible paths offers a new series of potential outcomes: a marriage could exist alongside a breakup, and a tragic illness could exist on a parallel plane to a long life together.  Constellations also shows us that the way we choose to react to what fate brings vastly changes the reality we experience.

It is a beautiful and complicated script that will likely leave audiences wondering at first.  A bit like a murder mystery without a murder, the audience will find clues as the play progresses.

Due to the small cast and the multiverse angle, we’ve cast two couples.  We’ve kept rehearsals entirely separate, so each couple can develop their characters without the influence of the other.  It’s been thrilling to see how each cast interprets things, and each show will be a very different experience. 

This is a fast paced, sharply written romp through many universal human conditions and challenges.  Audience members would do well to bring an extra pair of socks in case theirs get knocked off.

The play is inspired by a real event in which celebrity feminist Germaine Greer was held at gunpoint in 2000. In the show, a deranged former student of Margot’s bursts onto the scene blaming Margot for brainwashing her mother. As a random assortment of other characters encounter the situation, hilarity ensues.

The fast-paced humour effectively conveys a more serious message about the dangers of extremism. The show stars John Close, Sarah Knight, Layne Kriwoken, Jess Mattin, Brandon Newall and Kathy Yewell.

Mercury Players and Cowichan Pride are excited to co-present Bits of BLISS, a staged reading.

Bits of BLISS for Cowichan Pride includes six pieces from: BLISS: A Collection of commissioned Scenes and Monologues. Love is Other People (The Veil) by Dante Green; Super Mariodyssey by Shale Cook; Karaoke Night by Preston Max Allen; Awake, Unafraid by Dena Igusti; Love is Bliss: Mind. Body. Soul by R. Real Vargas Alanis; and The Learning Curve by L. Morgan Lee were all crafted to close the 2023 Breaking the Binary Theatre Festival in New York.

One of the expanded Cowichan Pride events this year, this co-production is an opportunity for more 2SLGTBQIA+ people to get involved in theatre, telling stories that relate to them and that celebrate their unique lives. It’s also an opportunity for local theatre audiences to experience works that wouldn’t normally be aired in the Cowichan Valley.

Director Layne Kriwoken says, “What attracted me to this particular work is that it isn’t meant to be sensational or shocking. Rather, these short scenes tell stories about accepting and loving yourself and others, about the importance of friends and chosen families — themes everyone can relate to.”

Cast members are Rose Bergeron, Laura Brennan, Jess Mattin, Elliot Fox Povey, Lily Sheske, Tasha Tsukishima and Svea Young. They play multiple roles in a number of different pieces.

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Staged readings are intended to encourage up-and-coming directors and actors, along with experienced ones, Mercury Players’ staged readings have only a few rehearsals and involve minimal movement. No stage, no special effects; just energetic rehearsed readings — storytelling at its most basic. Come along and join the informal fun! Doors open at 6:30 pm. Refreshments at intermission by donation. Seek more info? Contact louise.phillips@mercuryplayers.org

A comedy with a heart of gold
by Robert More

Meet widowed Jessica Quartermaine. Seventy-ish, elegant, reserved,
widowed. No longer willing to live with the “relentless predictability” and
“sensual deprivation” of the past five decades, she decides to seek
companionship of the male persuasion by posting an ad in the newspaper
which reads: “Seeking Suitors Suitable for Amorous Possibilities.”
What follows is a funny and poignant journey of discovery as Jessica meets
an experienced 65-year-old Italian fashion model; an inexperienced,
insecure 43-year-old librarian; and a 73-year-old Scot with a larger-than-life
personality.
The cast includes Sylvia Swift as Jessica, with Graham Brockley, Chadd
Cawson, Rob Foell, Perry Mill, Tom Przywara and Rien Vesseur as the
men in her life. Julia Lalonde directs.
Jessica’s Fine Adventure won the Playwrights Guild of Canada Comedy
award for 2023. Produced by kind permission of the playwright.

About staged readings
Intended to encourage up-and-coming directors and actors, along with
experienced ones, Mercury Players’ staged readings have only three rehearsals and involve minimal movement. No stage, no special effects; just energetic rehearsed readings — story telling at its most basic. Come along and join the informal fun!

A Canadian murder-mystery
Directed by Dan Leckey
Old friends Robert, Samira and David are the only three left of their original gang. Robert’s wife, famed mystery novelist Tara Waters, disappeared five years ago — but Robert insists she’s still alive. Paul, also a writer, died the year before, shortly after reuniting with his estranged daughter Eve. Eve has asked to meet the three friends for the first time, stating that she has something important to deliver. Over the evening’s meeting, Eve becomes awkward, eerie, strange and sinister. As the evening unravels, the chaos erupts with hidden secrets revealed.

Cited for its “cleverness and intricacy,” Burn was nominated Best New Play of 2017 by the Capital Critics’ Circle, Ottawa.

“Burn is an entertaining and often compelling puzzle…We really want to find out who did what to whom.”— Jerry Wasserman, Vancouver Plays/Vancouver Sun

Cast: Chadd Cawson, Jess Mattin, Erin Butler, Dayna Corbett, Christine Szeryk,
Philip Allingham. Tom Przywara narrates the stage directions.

About staged readings: Intended to encourage up-and-coming directors and actors, along with experienced ones, Mercury Players’ staged readings have only three rehearsals and involve minimal movement. No stage, no special effects; just energetic rehearsed readings — story-telling at its most basic. Come and join the informal fun! Register to attend at www. mercuryplayers.org Admission is by donation at the door.
Doors open at 6:30pm. Refreshments at intermission by donation. Seek more info?
Contact louise.phillips@mercuryplayers.org

 

Canadian Wild Flowers by Louise Phillips 

Canadian Wild Flowers is based on a true story of one woman’s courage and hope in meeting  the challenges of poverty and loneliness. It is 1865 in Upper Canada, and newly widowed  Agnes Fitzgibbon must find a way to support her six children. A talented amateur painter, she  sets out to create the very first book of Canadian wild flowers. Without a single colour press in the colony to print her illustrations, Agnes fears her dream will wither on the vine. A Victorian woman in a man’s world, she faces her publisher’s reluctance, her mother’s disapproval and her own self-doubt. Enlisting the aid of her three young daughters to hand paint each drawing, Agnes discovers the importance of family and of belief in her dream…and forever changes Canadian book publishing. 

 

About staged readings: 

Intended to encourage up-and-coming directors and actors, along with experienced ones, Mercury Players’ staged readings have only three rehearsals and involve minimal movement. No stage, no special effects; just energetic rehearsed readings — story-telling at its most basic. Come along and join the informal fun! 

Timepiece by Kico Gonzales-Risso

Retired watchmaker Walter is becoming forgetful — or is he just being capricious? His wife Doris wants to downsize. Walter does not. Their adult children Patrick (a lawyer) and Karla (a music therapist) have lots of advice for Mom and Dad when the siblings are not arguing with each other.

Timepiece is a funny, poignant and respectful look at ageing, marriage and family dynamics.

Cast
Walter – Layne Kriwoken
Doris – Janet Hodgkinson
Patrick – John Close
Karla – Julia Lalonde
Stage Directions – Nick Ailani

About staged readings:
Intended to encourage up-and-coming directors and actors, along with experienced ones, Mercury Players’ staged readings have only three rehearsals and involve minimal movement. No stage, no special effects; just energetic rehearsed readings — story-telling at its most basic. Come along and join the informal fun!