If you're feeling rather patriotic this week — as Canada marks its 150th year on Saturday — you can brush up on the nation's history, as told by actors in 60 minutes.
Monster Theatre has reworked the production that established them 16 years ago to suit a more family-friendly crowd.
And on Thursday it will mount its retooled re-telling of The Canada Show at Coquitlam's Evergreen Cultural Centre, the first time it has brought the play back since it appeared at the 2010 winter Olympics in Vancouver.
Co-writer Ryan Gladstone, who penned the original version with Bruce Horak in 2001, said The Canada Show has toured extensively including at high schools, theatres and festivals across the country.
"For the first five years, we did it so much that after every performance we were rewriting it to keep it fresh," Gladstone told The Tri-City News last Friday, adding, "The last time we did it was in 2010 and half of the audience wasn't from Canada. It was all news to them."
The country has seen many changes over the past seven years including a new prime minister and more recognition of the First Nations' culture, Gladstone said.
Still, the theatre company also hasn't shied away from heavier topics such as residential schools and Japanese internment camps "but, for the most part, it's very lighthearted," Gladstone said.
As well, The Canada Show includes references for all ages ranging from John Diefenbaker to Justin Bieber. And then there's the twisted fare: a dancing beaver, Bob and Doug McKenzie explaining the Cold War and Leonard Cohen singing about Canadian inventions in Nobody Knows.
The "lesson" is told through the lens of three bickering historians: one English, another French and the third trying to make sense of it all.
This year, Gladstone said, Monster Theatre will perform The Canada Show about 60 times. "It's the show that gave us our beginnings," he said, "and we never tire of it."
For tickets at $20/$10, call the Evergreen Cultural Centre (1205 Pinetree Way, Coquitlam) at 604-927-6555 or visit evergreenculturalcentre.ca. The show is suitable for guests aged 8 and up.
