The first show of the new theatre season is already underway at the Pumphouse Theatres. It’s Morpheus Theatre’s production of Funny Money, a British farce by Ray Cooney. Cooney is well-known for his farces, including such fare as Run For Your Wife.

In Funny Money, an accountant accidentally picks up the wrong briefcase and finds it full of money. He believes the cash is illicit, so he decides to cash in on the opportunity and run away with it. Things start to get complicated, however, when the police show up. “It’s a lot of fun and, from what we’ve seen so far, the audience just loves it,” says Morpheus Theatre’s artistic director, Sean Anderson. “Morpheus likes to start the season with a farce or good comedy, because the summer is over, and it’s back to school, so it’s a great way to lighten peoples’ moods.”

Anderson admits, however, that it’s been hard to get a big audience out to see the show, something he partially attributes to the fact that it opened hot on the heels of Labour Day. “We’ve had the opening show in September for several years now, but we keep moving closer and closer to the beginning of the month,” says Anderson, noting that this is the earliest they’ve ever put on a show.

Funny Money runs until Saturday, September 13 at the Pumphouse Theatre.

ST. HILARIA’S

"A cartoon parable." That's how writer and performer Dennis Hassell describes his one-man show, St. Hilaria’s. Hassell is coming in from Toronto to present the show, Fire Exit Theatre’s first of the season.

The story involves a collection of bizarre cartoon characters that attend the same church. There’s Hellen Dalmation, a Bible thumper who still votes Social Credit, and Barbie, who has "beautiful big blonde hair, beautiful big blue eyes, and beautiful big everything.”

"They're all exaggerated cartoon characters of types you'll find in every church," laughs Hassell.

A young minister enters the scene, tasked with bringing the church's numbers up to 100, or else head office will close it down and sell it to a developer. However, a catastrophe occurs that changes how people in the church interact with each other and the community around them. "I wrote the play because I saw a gap between the corporate church and the Kingdom of God. God didn't have finance meetings or votes taken," Hassell explains, referring to the numerous committees found in many churches. "The church in North America is blind and has been for awhile,” he adds.

Hassell takes on eight characters throughout the two-hour show. “People who have been burned by the church will find this therapeutic, and people who go to church will be challenged, and they'll both meet in a common place.”

St. Hilaria’s opens September 17 in the Engineered Air Theatre (Epcor Centre).

WHEN THAT I WAS…

The Shakespeare Company is opening its season with something slightly different than its usual Shakespeare fare. When That I Was… is a one-man show written by John Mortimer and Edward Atienza. The play tells the story of 75-year-old Jack Rice. The Puritans have shut down all the theatres in Shakespeare’s England but, one stormy night, he manages to sneak into one of the theatres that has been converted into a barn. He then recounts the story of his life as one of the boy actors in Shakespeare's company.

“It's a wonderful cross-section of the history of Shakespeare’s plays,” says Iam Coulter, artistic director of The Shakespeare Company.

Coulter actually went to Stratford, Ontario to meet with Atienza, who’s now in his mid-80s. “He's facing his own mortality now,” explains Coulter. “It [the play] is almost a tribute to his life.”

The Shakespeare Company had originally intended to do a production of Hamlet this fall, but the funding didn’t come through for that project. Vanessa Porteous, who directed Alberta Theatre Projects’ The Syringa Tree last season, will direct.

A regular on Calgary stages, Christopher Hunt, takes on the role of Rice in the hour-and-a-half production. “It's just a thrill for us to be working with him. He's so incredibly talented,” says Coulter. “Politically, it’s a very interesting play for our city. The Puritans shutting down the theatres could be compared to what's happening in our city today, and the homelessness issues we have as artists.”

When That I Was… opens September 25 at the Arrata Opera Centre.