Gas
& Light Productions was formed in the spring of 1998 and
mounted their first production that fall. The company took a gamble and
opened with a play based on a book by the very popular comedy/fantasy
writer, Terry Pratchett. The play, Wyrd Sisters was based extremely
loosely on Shakespeares Macbeth. The first season concluded with the
well-known farce See How They Run, by Philip King. The 1999/2000 season
opened with another farce, John Chapmans Holiday Snap, coupled with a
spring production of Any Number Can Die, a comedy thriller by Fred
Carmichael.
2000/2001 saw a return to the Discworld of the Terry Pratchett canon with
Mort, a story of a boy who became Deaths apprentice until he let a pretty
face distract him from his duties, unleashing a series of potential
disasters. For a number of reasons there was to be no spring production
this season. 2001 saw the most ambitious production to date, Oscar Wilde's
The Importance Of Being Earnest, complicated somewhat by using the less
well known four act version of the play. The gamble paid off with the best
box office results that the company had experienced.
The Dresser, with Ross
Mullen and Jeremy Mackenzie
The spring 2002 production saw a move from Fort Calgary to the Joyce
Doolittle Theatre at the Pumphouse, where Neil Simons Fools was mounted,
using, for the first time, a guest director. This too was a financial
success and fully justified the move to the better known theatre space.
The next season saw another Philip King farce, Pools Paradise followed by
Paul Runicks hit Broadway comedy I Hate Hamlet. A successful run at the
Pumphouse continued with the Restoration comedy She Stoops to Conquer by
Oliver Goldsmith. Offbeat plays The Dresser and Smash soon followed, but
the classic tale of Little Women was one of their most popular shows.
They capitalized on
their success with the re-mounting of The Importance of Being Earnest, and
the wildly popular Pride and Prejudice in 2007. Up next is the French
farce An Absolute Turkey in October of
2008.
For more on how you can get involved, please visit our Volunteer
page.
