Regina Little Theatre - Unity (1918)

Past performances: Unity (1918)

Directed by Ken Spencer
Show dates: April 6-9, 2005

Cast & Production Team
Synopsis
About the playwright
Production photos

Cast		Production Team
Actor	Role	Team Member	Role
Meghan Pederson	Beatrice Wilde	Ken Spencer	Director
Megan Gates	Sissy Wilde	Riley Richter	Stage Manager
Krista Trettwer	Mary	Bernadette Tice	ASM *
Shanna-Marie Tice	Sunna	Pat Wilson	Set Design/ Set Decorator
Nora Berg	Rose	Bernadette Tice	Lighting Design
Colleen Hawkesford	Doris	Harvey Friess	Set Construction
Josh Strait	Stan	Fred Gallagher	Set Construction
Andy Fisher	Michael	Rod McLeod	Set Construction
Mark Claxton	Hart Thorson	Barry Uncles	Set Construction
Darcy Donovan	Ted	Harold Woodward	Set Construction
Jeff Ring	Fred	Bernadette Tice	Makeup and Hair
Martin Krieser	Glen Brambly	Marie McCracken	Costumes
		Bonnie Senger	Props/Crew
		Andrea McNeil	Props

* ASM - Assistant Stage Manager

Synopsis of play
In the fall of 1918, a world ravaged by four years of war was suddenly hit by a mysterious and deadly plaque - the "Spanish Flu". The illness struck not only the young and the elderly, but also people in the prime of their lives, advancing rapidly toward mortality in its victims. As fear of the dreaded flue begins to fill the town of Unity, Saskatchewan with paranoia, drastic measures are taken.
The town is quarantined in an attempt to keep the illness out. Trains are forbidden to stop, no one can enter, and the borders are sealed. But when the disease descends upon the town despite these precautions, the citizens begin to urn on each other as they attempt to find a scapegoat for the crisis.
Very little has been written about this world-wide calamity which, more than the war itself, destroyed forever the genteel and naive presumptions of European colonial society at the beginning of the twentieth century, and Kevin Kerr offers audiences not only an epic chronicle of this forgotten chapter of Canadian history, but a chilling preview of the beginnings of our own new century.
The play is a gothic romance, filled with dark comedy and the desperate embrace of life at the edge of death.

RLT is pleased to present the Saskatchewan premiere of this fine Canadian play.

About the playwright
Originally from Kamloops in the dusty Thompson Valley of B.C., Kevin Kerr is a writer, actor, and co-Artistic Director of Vancouver's award-winning Electric Company Theatre, a creation based collective.
He's co-authored numerous plays with Electric Company including Brilliant!, The Wake, The Score, Flop, and Dona Flor and Her Two Husbands. As playwright-in-residence at Touchstone Theatre during their 1999-2000 season, he developed Unity 1918 , which was premiered by Touchstone Theatre in Vancouver in 2001, earning him a Governor General's Award for Original Script and the Sidney Risk Award for outstanding script by an emerging playwright. Unity was published by Talon Books in the spring of 2002.
Other plays include Fishing with Joh, and Fire: Where There's Smoke , which was co-written with Kathleen Oliver. In the past few years, he has received four Jessie Richardson Awards for his writing, both solo and with the Electric Company collective. He studied theatre at U.B.C., acting for a time at Studio 58, and has worked in theatre in the Yukon, B.C., and Quebec.
He lives in Vancouver with his girlfriend, Marita. He invites you over for coffee. Call ahead.

Production photos

Andy Fisher and Megan Gates.

Marty Krieser, Meghan Pederson and Megan Gates.

Megan Gates, Mark Claxton, Josh Strait, Krista Trettwer and Meghan Pederson.

Megan Gates

Nora Berg and Colleen Hawkesford.

Shanna-Marie Tice.