Prince Albert’s Odyssey Productions is preparing for its next show: a comical story mixed with a little suspense.
Four Old Broads on the High Seas takes place the day after the original play Odyssey performed in 2018. However, as Director Layla Shuparski explained, both can stand on their own.
“The first show, Four Old Broads, we did last season at the beginning of the year and while we were doing it, Leslie Kimbell, the playwright, was actually writing the second one. She shot it off to us and said ‘Hey, what do you think?’ Of course we all loved it,” she said.
In Four Old Broads, four senior citizens are prepping to go on vacation. Now, they’re on a cruise, with what Shuparski describes as a whole other group of unique, memorable personalities.
Shuparski said there’s a murder mystery and thefts woven into the comedy.
Chantelle Hovdebo—who plays one of the broads, Eaddy Mae Clayton—was also in the original show.
“She is a prim and proper kind of woman. She’s got a very strong faith behind her,” she said.
“She’s quite opinionated I guess you would say and she doesn’t have a problem calling people out when they’re doing something wrong or she thinks they’re sinning.”
However, as Hovdebo explains, her character learns to loosen up throughout the show.
Embodying Eaddy Mae Clayton has been a challenge, she said.
“This character is totally not me. I’m not prim and proper, there’s nothing prim and proper about me. She’s very judgmental, which is very difficult because I am the least judgmental person,” said Hovdebo, but said it’s been beneficial for her as an actress.
“I find every role I do, I become better and better.”
Cathy Worobetz’s character, Imogene Fletcher, got engaged at the end of the first show and gets married in the second.
“There are new characters coming in which just adds more excitement to the play,” she said about the sequel.
“It’s comical. It’s just silly fun,” Worobetz added.
“There’s jokes written in there throughout the whole thing.”
The cast of 11 people and crew of six have been rehearsing three times a week for the past two and a half months.
Shuparski said they’ll be taking the play to a festival in Melfort for adjudication.
“The big thing is learning lines word for word and making sure that the blocking is good and that it’s a simple set. I wanted to keep it as simple as possible,” she said.
“There’s still some fine tuning to do.”
Four Old Broads on the High Seas is showing at Plaza 88 from Feb. 26 to 29. The first day is a show only, and the rest are dinner theatres.
Tickets are available at Canadian Tire and must be purchased in advance for the dinner theatre shows. The show only costs $25 per ticket and dinner theatre shows cost $55. Doors open at 6:30 p.m.
A dollar from every ticket sold this season goes towards the Victoria Hospital Foundation’s Give a Little Life Day.
