Oxycontin News Blog

Don’t expect typical Cape Breton comedy in Ken Jessome’s Rabbits and Blueberries.

"If people are looking for Summertime Revue-y stuff, it’s not that at all," says director Bev Brett. "He’s tried to take the stereotypes of quaint Cape Breton characters and comedy and turn them around."

In Jessome’s Cape Breton urban problems are encroaching on rural areas, says Brett, who lives in North River. "It is the problem of OxyContin and prescription drugs."

Rabbits and Blueberries, originally produced last fall at the Boardmore Theatre, is being re-mounted for a run at the Boardmore tonight and Saturday, 7 p.m., and On The Waterfront Festival in Dartmouth May 11 to 13.

"It’s extremely witty, very funny. It’s almost like an urban/town voice — Ken’s from Whitney Pier — in a country setting. There’s a real twist and turn of events and it gets darker and darker. There’s an edge to Ken’s stuff."

Rabbits and Blueberries is set in the fictitious Middle Cove where Francis runs the local pub and Billy is his only customer. As a local nunnery is robbed and a new tea room steals business from Francis, trouble is on the horizon. Francis must try to help Billy as Billy makes decisions that could lead to self-destruction.

Rabbits and Blueberries stars veteran Cape Breton actors Todd Hiscock as Francis and Nick Sobol as Billy. Hiscock is manager of the Boardmore Playhouse, teaches theatre courses at Cape Breton University and has a master of fine arts degree in acting. Brett directed him in the St. Ann’s Bay Players’ internationally touring production of The Margaret.

"It’s a real actors’ play," she says. "The two characters are very different. Todd just dances around the bar and Ken has written for Nick before. He’s been in a lot of his plays."

Brett suggested Jessome submit his script to Eastern Front Theatre’s On the Waterfront Theatre Festival, the only national theatre festival in Atlantic Canada.

"It’s a great opportunity for a playwright," says Brett. "He gets his work out there in a professional setting and it’s an opportunity for Cape Breton artists to be seen outside of Cape Breton. To be part of a national festival, we’ve very excited to be included."

This is the second time Jessome’s work has been seen off island. His play Reading, in a UCCB DramaGroup production, won best Canadian production at the 2004 Liverpool International Theatre Festival and also featured Sobol.

Rabbits and Blueberries is on tonight and Saturday, 7 p.m., at the Boardmore Playhouse. Tickets are $10 general and $7 students and seniors. They are at the door or call 563-1606.

Brett, soon to workshop her new play Out the Meadow with playwright Daniel McIvor, is pleased that Rabbits and Blueberries is on the same bill at the On the Waterfront Festival with McIvor’s House, a darkly comic one-man show about an alienated urban man. "It’s kind of neat. We’ll have two Cape Breton shows in one night."

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