Silver lining on Lakeshore Players season

BY HOLLIE WATSON

The Lakeshore Players lower the curtains on their 2007-2008 season with Silver Dagger, a classic whodunit by David French, one of Canada’s foremost contemporary playwrights.

The production gets underway tonight at John Rennie High School Theatre in Pointe Claire.

In keeping with the tradition of thrillers, “the key element is deception,” said Murray Napier, who marks his first involvement with the vibrant West Island theatre company with this production.

“The main character in the play is Steve Marsh, a mystery writer who is being blackmailed by the sister of a woman with whom he had an affair. To deal with the situation, he comes up with an elaborate plan. As for the Silver Dagger, it’s actually an award for mystery writers, but it becomes an instrument of murder,” explained the Baie d’Urfé resident, who before retiring two years ago directed over 60 shows during his long tenure at John Abbott College, where he founded its much lauded theatre department. In fact, three of the six-member cast of the play, as well as the set and lighting designers, happen to be JAC alumni.

Film noir music, gunshots, thunder and lightening, and other special effects help create the play’s atmosphere, while plot twists keep the audience guessing as to what really happened on that “dark and stormy night,” he said.

In 1993, the play was a finalist for the Arthur Ellis Award from the Crime Writers of Canada.

Performances of Silver Dagger continue tomorrow through Saturday and from May 7 to 10 at 8 p.m. Proceeds from last evening’s preview benefit show were donated to the Stewart Hall Singers; the beneficiary for next Tuesday’s benefit is the Lac St. Louis Federal Liberal Association.

John Rennie is located at 501 St. John’s Blvd. For ticket reservations or more information, call the box office at 514-631-8718.

Chronicle, Jacques Pharand