Fox on the Fairway is the season-opening farce for Central Alberta Theatre, which is back serving up dinner theatre productions at the Black Knight Inn.
Alex Taylor, director of the Ken Ludwig comedy, feels anticipation in the air as CAT returns to a venue that many patrons had missed when the community theatre switched over to other locations over the past five years.
“Everyone’s excited for us to be here,” says Taylor. She feels moving back to the Black Knight Inn, where CAT dinner theatres were held from 1990-2011, has even brought some theatrical veterans back into the fold.
Fox in the Fairway opens on Friday, Oct. 28, with a cast of mostly seasoned community actors. Craig Scott will play Bingham, the hapless president of the Quail Valley Country Club, who has a lot to sweat over as the play begins.
Not only is he surprised to discover that his newly hired hand, Justin, is in love with Louise, a waitress at the club, but Bingham is about to lose a huge bet he’s wagered on the outcome of the annual golf tournament.
It turns out his ace-in-the-hole golfer is a turn-coat. He’s switched sides at the last minute and is now playing for the competing club, managed by Bingham’s nemesis — the cocky and arrogant Dickie.
Having foolishly wagered more than he can afford to lose, Bingham is desperate… and so, apparently, is the club’s sex-starved vice-president, Pamela, who further complicates matters by making a play for him in front of his wife, Muriel.
Can Bingham salvage his dignity, marriage, or at least his pocketbook? Taylor says you’ll have to check out Fox on the Fairway to find out.
While there are a couple of poignant moments, the tone of the play is light-hearted and silly. “It’s quick-paced and snappy. That’s why I like it,” adds the director, who laughed out loud the first time she read the script and hasn’t stopped chuckling through rehearsals since.
“I want to make sure everybody has fun, because if we have fun making it, then I believe everybody will have fun watching it.”
Taylor, who mostly has stage-managing experience up to now, is enjoying the creative freedom that comes with helming a production. She believes Fox on the Fairway will be the perfect kick-off to a new CAT season.
Tickets are available from the Black Knight Ticket Centre.
lmichelin@www.reddeeradvocate.com