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Home My WebLink AboutHuron Expositor, 2004-07-07, Page 1010 -THE HURON EXPOSITOR, July 7, 2004 Entertainment �v�•°A"+i.f ..::+.-:.+1,s+r : .. Outdoor Donnellys is wagon -loads of fun By Susan Hundertmark Expositor Editor Sitting on a crisp, clear night watching one of the most compelling stories of Southwestern Ontario history unfold with passion and skill, it's not difficult to understand why the Blyth Festival's The Outdoor Donnellys is packing wagon -loads of audiences for the third season. While the show's hour and a halt' finale tells the complete story of the notorious Lucan-area murder of members of the Donnelly family during the late 1800s, much of the show's charm and complexity lies in the nine earlier vignettes, three of which audience members travel throughout the village of Blyth on tractor -drawn wagons to witness. Local volunteers, who play their roles with almost as much polish as the professionals in the finale, tease the audience with fragments of the story of one of Canada's bloodiest murders. Of the three. vignettes 1 saw last Friday, former Seaforth resident Harry Nesbitt is an entertaining and commanding presence in the vignette Love and Larceny as Lucan's postmaster William Porte, from whose diary much of the story is told. With relish, he relates stories of "those beautiful Donnelly boys" who charm the local girls and enrage their parents. Marg Whitmore, of Seaforth, does a great job as one of those enraged mothers, whose daughter is loved and left by a Donnelly boy. As well, former teacher and lay minister Bruce Whitmore, of Seaforth, seems at home behind the pulpit in the role of Father Connelly, the Catholic priest who forms a secret society against the Donnelly family in the vignette Trials and Tribulations. Whitmore shows great energy and enthusiasm while pounding the pulpit and bringing fire and brimstone down on the whole congregation. And, those with a front row seat in the church basement get the added excitement of almost being part of the action when the murdering mob goes after the five—members of the Donnelly clan with clubs and sticks, before denying their participation in the murder in the trial that follows. Because different actors perform the same characters in separate vignettes, the viewer can be left a little confused about the facts of the story by the end of the third vignette. But, that confusion is cleared up beautifully by the finale, which tells the story of the seven Donnelly brothers in the open air where bordering farms and a horse-drawn stagecoach helps to transport us back to the days of pioneer towns. The central romance between Will Donnelly, played masterfully by the Blyth Festival's artistic director Eric McCormack and his love, Maggie Thompson, played with great heart by Kelly McIntosh, is electric. The story of the lives of the hard -drinking, brawling yet still endearing Donnelly brothers is told with humour and energy to the rousing sound of fiddles, guitars, mandolin and banjo, played skillfully by Anne Lederman, Capucine Onn, Gil Garratt, Arras Hopkins, Patrick McManus, Brendan Wall and Shawn Dixon. While the set is minimal, the trapdoor is used to great effect in the final scenes when a fire at centre stage helps the play build to its exciting conclusion. Dale Wanless, Eric McCormack and Kelly McIntosh in The Outdoor Donnellys. Submitted photo _ IIP1R�f0�11 111MI1CB 1 , removal & clean-up et truck service chipping p Grinding Rolling Bernard 519.482.3976 all -527-0240 SCHOONDERWOERD BROS. 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