Taking a well deserved break from rehearsing The Love List are Director Natalie Robitaille (left) Actors Bruce Davies, Dawn Sadler and Steven Burley, at the Southampton Town Hall, the Bruce County Playhouse’s new residence, June 30.

Hub Staff

Rehearsals for Bruce County Playhouse’s production of The Love List are well underway. The Norm Foster comedy, which runs short of 90 minutes, will have its premiere night gala on Friday, July 8 at the Southampton Town Hall, the new home of theatre in Bruce County.

Tickets can be purchased at the door or at Bayberry’s Flowers in Southampton and Cathy’s Flowers and Treasures in Port Elgin. The play will run at the Southampton Town Hall from July 8 through to July 23 with both evening and matinee performances.

The Love List is centered around two friends, Bill, played by Bruce Davies and Leon, played by Steven Burley; who make a list of the best attributes they would want in a woman. When Justine, played by Wiarton’s Dawn Sadler, suddenly appears on Bill’s doorstep shortly after the list is made, hilarity ensues and Bill quickly realizes that one should be careful what they wish for, especially when it comes to “the perfect woman”.

Actor Dawn Sadler, who now lives in Toronto, called her agent as soon as she saw the audition posting as she knew that spending six weeks back in the “Bruce” would be a gift. Beyond that, Sadler enjoys playing “any kind of character you can imagine,” as the character of Justine goes through a few personality changes.

“Every time they change a characteristic, when they find a personality that they don't like, they change it; and I change. I'm wailing at one point, I'm a Southern Belle at one point. It’s a lot of really past pivots and it just gets more and more hilarious and hysterical as it goes along,” Sadler said during rehearsal, June 30.

Director of the Bruce County Playhouse, Natalie Robitaille, held three auditions for The Love List, one in Saugeen Shores and two in Toronto. The three actors arrived in Saugeen Shores on June 20 and by June 30 were rehearsing off-book while the stage was still being constructed.

Robitaille said the play is not just a comedy but a commentary of relationships; and it illustrates why Foster is one of the biggest playwrights in Canada. “It’s the pitfalls of trying to find perfection in somebody else, but the show is really about the friendship of these two guys, (Leon and Bill) and how that changes,” Robitaille said.

In August the Bruce County Playhouse will present Shirley Valentine, a play by Willy Russell, running August 5 through August 13, with tickets being sold at Cathy’s Flowers and Treasures in Port Elgin and Bayberry’s Flowers in Southampton.

For a full list of dates and show times, visit brucecountyplayhouse.com.

Actors Steven Burley (left) and Bruce Davies during a rehearsal of the Norm Foster play The Love List, which opens July 8, at the Southampton Town Hall.

Actor Dawn Sadler plants one on co-star Bruce Davies during rehearsals of The Love List.