HAUNTED @ St-James Church

The Great Amherst Mystery” Brought to Life - World Premier -

DEATH: “…the undiscovered country from whose bourn no traveler returns”…or do they?

Presented by Rabbit In A Hat, HAUNTED is set in the small town of Amherst, Nova Scotia in 1879, nineteen-year-old Esther Cox hears voices and is the victim of threatening messages written on her bedroom wall after a strange encounter with her beau in the marshes one night. A simple and unassuming life spirals headlong into a macabre nightmare. With the medical experts baffled, the religious community helpless, and Esther imprisoned for crimes committed by the poltergeist, can her soul be saved? As extraordinary as it sounds, it’s all true!

If you see just one play this week, make it 'Haunted'. Perfectly 'spookylishous' for Halloween week. All of the performances are strong and entertaining; Catherine Bérubé's delivres a very powerful performance as Ester Cox and she's totally captivating on stage. Plenty of clever special effects, good use of the space, and some very interesting and informative history revealed in the text add to the enjoyment of the play. Walter Hubbell, the narrator/actor played by Paul Van Dyke, gets in some quick and clever repartee adding just the right measure of sarcastic wit to balance out the dark suspenseful drama in the story. The live music is very enjoyable and adds even more color to this dark priece. Like with much of Van Dyke's work, this play is born from research, the germinal idea "...to write a play based on different cultural interpretations of the afterlife." He then happened upon 'The Great Amherst Mystery' "... It is my hope that I have created a different version of the apparently true story of what happened to Esther Cox in 1879 Amherst N.S.".

Written & directed by Paul Van Dyke. An all-star cast and crew bring the bizarre tale to life, including: Catherine Bérubé, Alexandria Haber, Carlo Mestroni, Eric Davis, Kyle Gatehouse, and Paul Van Dyck.Crew includes: Jeremy Eliosoff FX computer generated graphics; Jody Burkholder lighting; Helen Rainbird costumes; Jesse Ash sound; Daniel Giverin music consultant, and playing violin; Trevor Smith on cello. Photo credit, Jeremy Bobrow.

BOO! GO C IT!
St. James United Church, 463 Ste-Catherine West; Entrance: 1440, St-Alexandre.
Runs October 21 - 31. Tickets $20. Box office: (514) 303 – 7646