Get ready to sit back and laugh.
The Friends of the Majestic Theatre’s latest production — The Book Club — opens this week and will have the audience chuckling at just how close to reality this play is.
“It’s a comedy that features three men and three women that is all about making wrong assumptions, mistaken identities and skinny jeans,” said Cole Olesen, who is directing his first play for the group.
The play could aptly be described as resembling the storylines presented in a popular 90s television show with a similar cast.
Josh (played by Randy Thomas) with romantic issues of his own attempts to help out his friend Henry Hossler (played by Olesen), who still can’t get over a break up from two months ago, by inviting him to the book club.
In the meantime another friend, Brad (played by Brian Koenraadt) shows up and weasels his way into attending after finding out there will be three women at the meeting.
Those women include Anna (played by Brandi Pearce) — which Josh likes, but is having issues with the fact Anna is engaged — along with her friends Julia (played by Carrie Domstad) and Eileen (played by Katherine Cunniffe), one who has trouble hanging onto a relationship for more than a day and the other who is rather scared of any social interaction with the opposite sex.
All of this lends itself to some absolutely hilarious antics and situations throughout the three acts, which was among the reasons this play was chosen.
Olesen, whose also appeared in some previous Majestic productions, went through several plays — after being asked to direct for this year — before selecting The Book Club.
“When I first read it, I was immediately drawn to the love story,” he said.
“Though, it’s also about our self identity and that, despite our many flaws, there is still someone out there for us.”
It’s been years since Olesen has been in the directors seat, which presents its own challenges, but this play is made more difficult in that he has chosen to also be on the stage.
“It’s definitely different being in the production while also trying to direct it,” he explained.
“There are a lot of the challenges, but I find the biggest ones are trying to stay in character while directing people on stage or the lighting or trying to make sure things run smoothly. I’m really relying on a lot of the other people in the production.”
That said, he is so thankful for the wonderfully professional people he is working with.
“We started about a month later than usual. Though, it’s been amazing with what little spare time there was how everything from the set design to painting to wardrobe has been accomplished,” Olesen noted.
“I really can’t say enough about everyone working on the play and how well it has all went.”
Performances
The play opens up on Apr. 4 with further shows going Apr. 5, 6, 12, 13, 14 and 20.
The Apr. 4 evening show begins at 7 p.m. (doors open one hour before) while the Apr. 14 performance is a brunch that is served at 1:30 p.m. (doors open at 1 p.m.). The other dates are dinner theatre shows that start serving at 6:30 p.m. (doors open at 6 p.m.).
Tickets are still available and can be had by calling Marc at (403) 804-8782 or Val at (403) 358-8575.
jordie.dwyer@ponokanews.com
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