Agricultural thriller Marsh Marigolds coming to Guelph
GUELPH – “Rural noir” – as if Raymond Chandler got lost in Persephone Township – is how playwright Dan Needles describes his new one-man show, the latest from the creators of Wingfield Farm series.
Starring Rod Beattie, these lively farm life fictions have drawn audiences for decades, officials say.
Now, Marsh Marigolds: An Agricultural Thriller, comes to River Run Centre’s main stage on Dec. 1 at 7:30pm.
Needles is no stranger to the genre of entertaining rural fiction. The celebrated Canadian playwright began the Wingfield series in 1984, one-man plays which grew out of a column he wrote for a small-town weekly newspaper.
The stories centre on Walt Wingfield, a Toronto stockbroker-turned-farmer who faces various misadventures trying to make a living in the agricultural business.
Needles created seven plays in the series, which have been performed close to 5,000 times across Canada.
Brothers Rod and Doug Beattie have been at the heart of the Wingfield plays since the beginning, over three decades ago.
The trio are childhood friends with Needles.
Doug directs, Rod acts, and Needles involves the Beattie brothers in every stage of the process.
Marsh Marigolds: An Agricultural Thriller, is their latest.
Walt Wingfield’s daughter, Hope, is now grown up and working at Queen’s Park.
Ray, Hope’s former boyfriend, returns home to the Township to work for Ed, well-known to Wingfield fans as the editor of the town’s Free Press and Economist.
Intrigue builds as Ray’s reporting of farm news raises more questions than answers. What sinister mystery lurks beneath the idyllic calm of the Southern Ontario farm?
Equal parts hilarious, poignant, and haunting, the story unfolds as Beattie takes on one character after another. He changes his voice and facial expression to mark each one, a craft he was recognized for with a Dora Mavor Moore Award for his work in the first three Wingfield plays (1991-92), officials say.
Tickets to Marsh Marigolds: An Agricultural Thriller are $49 for adults, $47 for patrons over 60 years old, and $29 for those under 30.
For more information or to purchase, call 519-763-3000, visit River Run’s Box Office (35 Woolwich St., Guelph), or purchase tickets at riverrun.ca/whats-on/marsh-marigolds/.
The show is part of River Run’s Showcase Series.
