Expect a lot of humour—some of it irreverent—when the cast of Some Fools and Their Money takes to the stage next week.
“We just wanted it to be funny,” director and co-writer Jason Smith said of the play that he wrote with Suzanne Chubb. “But it’s not just for families, as our recent summer productions have been.”
“It’s a little bit edgy,” added Gillian Wells, who is the assistant director and also plays one of the 13 roles that Smith and Chubb created.
“We wanted to make fun of people of the Trump - Kardashian mold—people who are famous for being famous, and for being wealthy,” Smith said. “I mean that in general—it is not a direct parody of the Trumps.”
Smith describes Some Fools and Their Money as being about “clueless rich people in 1906, and what happens when a family loses its money.”
“Their wealth was inherited, of course. None of these people actually earned their money.”
“To them there is no life without money,” Wells said. “Life just becomes pure misery.”
“We laughed all through the first rehearsals,” Chubb said. “I started wondering if we could ever get all the way through without breaking up.”
Wells said that an excellent cast embraced their characters so much that ad-libbing became routine, and could well continue into the performances.
“Some regularly go off-script because they really do become their characters!”
“A lot has been added during rehearsals because of the ad-libbing, ”Chubb echoed. “Especially the amount of really good physical humour.
Set in the opulent parlour of a New York tycoon’s summer home in Newport Rhode Island, the play took a short time for him and Chubb to write, but the production has being going on “forever”—since the fall of last year, actually.
“We definitely had a path we wanted to follow when we started writing,” Chubb said. “But we constantly had to ask ourselves, ‘Can we really say this?’”
“And it all ends up with a really fun plot twist—it was much easier to write than our others,” Smith added.
The ensemble cast includes Wells and Chubb, but Smith is sitting this one out, at least as an actor.
“He’s directing, doing the sound and lighting, designed and built the set. There’s no way he could play a part, too,” Wells said.
“I would like to thank Donald Trump and his supporters, and Ivanka and Jared, and Hollywood in general, for inspiring Some Fools and Their Money!” Smith laughed.
And, after describing the role of the stuffed cat, Napoleon Cataparte, Wells added a disclaimer.
“No animals were harmed in the making of this play!”
The cast also includes Stephanie Sweet, Debra Mehrer, Jonathan Wright, Robin Clegg, Christine Park, Jeremy Mogg, Meaghan Osborne, Suzanne Chubb, Zoe Marini, Gary Atha and Ann Deatherage.
Some Fools and Their Money runs from July 5-7 at Prince Charles Theatre, with curtain time at 7:30.
Tickets are $12 for adults, $10 for seniors/students and $8 for children under 12 (some content may not be suitable for children), available at Kingfisher Used Books & Fine Coffee, The Fly in the Fibre and Black Bear Books. Show your ticket at Real Food Cafe for a free dessert (with meal purchase) on show nights.
Need a chuckle? Go to the Footlighters Theatre Society Facebook page and check out the Dan Caverly-produced video trailer, which was shot in Cranberry Manor.