HomeMy WebLinkAboutThe Citizen, 2005-06-29, Page 15Back for
Midnight
BLYTH FESTIVAL SALUTE, JUNE 29/30, 2005, PAGE 15
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Peter Colley: his life changed
because of a scary house.
Peter Colley plans to return to
where it all began when
I’ll Be Back Before Midnight
is performed at Blyth Festival
By Sarah Mann
Special to The Citizen
I’ll Be Back Before Midnight is
returning to the Blyth stage and
writer Peter Colley is a little
apprehensive. Not because he
doesn’t trust the cast and crew, but
because he doesn’t trust himself.
This season’s version of Midnight
is the original, written in 1978 while
staying at a Victorian farmhouse
near Blyth.
“It’s a little bit nerve wracking in a
way,” Colley says. “I’ve changed the
ending, added an extra twist or two.
I think Eric may have seen the
original version and thought there
was something very interesting
about it. I haven’t seen the original
for a long, long time. I’m really
curious to see how it plays.”
While working through the winter
of 1977-78 with Anne Chislett and
James Roy on another play, Colley
would decline to stay the night at the
farmhouse because “there was
something extremely spooky about
the house.” Instead of staying over,
Colley would drive through
blizzards to stay at his own home in
London.
After a while, Roy approached
Colley saying, “If you find this place
so intriguing, why don’t you write a
story about it?”
“I don’t know if I was sensing
strange memories, or if something
evil had happened in the house
before but it certainly intrigued me.”
Coupled with the fascination of
this farmhouse was the desire to
create a play other theatres would
pick up and produce.
“The play I did the year before in
Blyth, The Huron Tiger, was an
historical drama about the Canada
Company and the founding of the
Huron Tract. I sent the script off to
all the theatres in Canada and they
said, ‘Oh, it’s nice but there’s too
many people in the cast and it’s a
costume drama, which is expensive
and it’s an historical piece and we’re
not really doing historical pieces’.”
“That particular winter,” Colley
says, “I was practically starving to
death. I wasn’t getting much in the
way of royalties.”
So Colley motivated himself by
thinking, “What they want is a small
cast show, set in the present time.
Well, I’m going to make it a thriller
and a comedy. I’m going to just
crank this thing up and nobody is
going to say no to me.”
Colley believes that’s probably
fueled the reason Midnight has so
much power to it.
Colley said his greatest desire
was to get one or two years of extra
productions. Not only did he do that,
it’s played worldwide in places like
Kenya, Jamaica and Great Britain
and grossed over $8 million. With
Midnight providing Colley’s base
income since it was written, he often
jokes he could almost retire after
that.
“Although I got my start at the
Grand (Theatre) in London, it was
Blyth that really made the huge
difference in my life. Once I wrote
Midnight, it just took off like a bat
out of hell. And even today, it’s
amazing. It’s probably the most
popular thriller in Great Britain. It’s
still touring and playing.”
Colley, a graduate of
University of Western Ontario,
believes the reason the play
resonates all over the world is
because there is universality to the
theme of city versus country.
“It’s the whole thinking of taking
the neurotic city couple, very
academic and cerebral, and dropping
them into some rural area with a
local farmer full of strange stories.
Everybody has that phobia of the
unknown. I’ve just always loved the
idea of a fish out of water.”
Colley will be returning to his
“home turf’ for opening night and
while he’s excited to come back, he
reveals more about why he’s so
nervous.
“What if I’ve messed up all these
years and I should have just stuck
with the original one? I’m a little bit
apprehensive. I know the ending will
work, it did in the original.” he says.
“I just don’t want it to work too
well, then I’ll feel like an idiot.”
John Dolan stars as the comic
farmer George.
Midnight
Memories
the
“I spent long periods on
alone and would pull the curtains (at
the windows) to see what was behind
them and the screams from the ’front
of house’ would almost make me
jump. The tension was amazing and
definitely fueled my performance. To
me it is the audience that makes the
difference in. Blyth and its people
make it so unique.”
who played Jan in
production, quoted
Memories, published
anniversary of the Festival in 1990.
stage
—Angie Gei
the premiere
in Special
on the 15th
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