A novice politician who casually throws his hat into the election ring is surprised to be voted into office, in the next Central Alberta Theatre comedy, Booster McCrane, P.M.
Now wait a second . . . didn’t this same scenario unfold in Quebec in the last federal election, when Ruth Ellen Brosseau — who never campaigned or even visited the riding of Berthier-Maskinongé — was voted in on an unprecedented wave of New Democrat support?
CAT director Carole Forhan said that’s the funniest thing about this play by David S. Craig, which opens on Friday, Feb. 10, at City Centre Stage in downtown Red Deer. “It’s so bloody current,” she said of the Canadian comedy, first produced in 1983.
“It seems every time I open the paper, there’s something that pertains to our play.”
Unlike real-life politician Brosseau, who’s had to polish her French since unexpectedly winning the 2011 election, the fictional McCrane has bigger fish to fry.
Due to general political apathy and a low turnout at polling stations, the unexperienced lawyer from Veteran, Alta., has been carried by the radical vote into the country’s highest office as the new Canadian prime minister.
The still shell-shocked 50-something McCrane arrives in Ottawa with his sole supporters — his childhood sweetheart, Crystal Wildrose, and Chief Joseph White Eagle, the only other member of his Canada First Party to be elected.
The unlikely trio no sooner cross Parliament’s oaken threshold than they discover that Canada is controlled by foreign interests — namely American ones.
Smooth-talking U.S. ambassador Maynard Chesley is pushing to have the mighty Fraser River rerouted south to California.
Chesley doesn’t see any problem in tapping into a Canadian natural resource. In fact, he sees it as a win-win scenario: “The U.S. gets our water and Canada gets a nice, flat riverbed upon which to construct more rail lines to get our wheat out of the country faster,” said Forhan.
An outraged McCrane reacts by declaring war on the U.S. on his first day in office.
“Booster decides, in his odd way, that he’s going to set the country straight — and he does. That’s the funny part,” said Forhan, who compares the character to the fool in King Lear, “who turns out to be the most sensible person in the whole play.”
While Booster McCrane, P.M. isn’t exactly Shakespeare, staging the comedy has been a Herculean effort for CAT.
Firstly, there’s the imposing wood-panelled set, based on the actual prime minister’s office in Ottawa.
Set designer Stuart Reid has his hands full creating the look of Gothic windows, embossed wooden walls and door cornices.
“It’s one of the most elaborate sets I’ve seen in my 40 years in theatre,” added Forhan, who’s impressed by Reid’s hundreds of hours of labour.
The play’s second complexity is the fact that three scenes need to be televised.
Forhan put CAT’s sound and lights expert William Ladic in charge of directing these newscast sequences.
If Ladic can get a green screen borrowed from Red Deer College to work its magic, he said the televised clips should include background shots of Montreal, Edmonton and Prince Edward Island.
“We used good old YouTube,” said Ladic, who found people on the Internet site willing to videotape streetscapes across the country.
He’s full of praise for these helpful strangers — as well as the college and local companies, including Shaw Cable and Visions electronics for being so accommodating. “This really has been a community effort. It could have been like pulling teeth, but it was the opposite. Everything fell into place so easily.”
Forhan feels the same about her cast of experienced and novice actors, including professional Montreal actor Robert van der Linden as McCrane, and former city councillor Dennis Moffat as Chesley.
lmichelin@www.reddeeradvocate.com