Contributed photo: Actors Terry Barna, Jay Davis, Perrie Olthuis and Craig Pike toast Baco Noir with playwright Dan Needles (back row, centre) and director David Nairn (back right).
While trying his hand as a vintner, Dan Needles was inspired to write his latest play.
Baco Noir is a comedy about growing grapes in the harsh climate of Persephone Township, not unlike growing grapes in the harsh climate of Nottawasaga Township.
The play, premiering at Theatre Orangeville May 8, is about a young couple from the city who make a move north to the country with aspirations of starting a vineyard. Due to the climate, they opt for the Baco Noir grape but the wine is awful.
They get some support from the next-door neighbour and agriculture guru who theorizes that the couple’s troubles are related to a long lingering spirit on the hill.
“The story of Baco Noir is quite interesting because it is a new world grape with some old world connections, which resonates in Creemore,” said Needles. “The root is really a wild grape. The grape itself is a European vinifera and the name of the parent grape of Baco Noir is Folle Blanche, which means mad white haired woman and so it’s suggested a ghost story.”
The grape is very vigorous, erratic and somewhat difficult to control, which Needles says, “pretty much sums up the neighbourhood”.
The couple buys the property and can’t understand why it has never been farmed.
“Everybody else does,” said Needles. “It’s called Spirit Hill and it’s resisted agriculture of any kind for 200 years.”
Terry Barna, Jay Davis, Perrie Olthuis and Craig Pike make up the four-person ensemble cast, under the direction of David Nairn.
The play is a mix of city and country, so much so that Needles says event the actors don’t know what to make of playing to a north-of-the-city audience and have to acclimatize.
“It’s not an urban play. We do have a different way of looking at things,” said Needles. “People know each other. They have known each other for decades or generations so there is a lot of interconnections and yet it’s quite diverse because there are a lot of new people coming in and they are trying to fit in and make sense of the place themselves. So it’s a place with a lot of history and is going through tremendous change and this produces a lot of stories.”
Needles, 64, is also the author of the Wingfield plays and others that are set in the fictional Persephone Township. Baco Noir, said Needles, is set just down the road.
The Nottawa playwright is a recipient of the Stephen Leacock Memorial Medal for Humour and the Order of Canada.
The play runs at Theatre Orangeville until May 24. Tickets cost $42 for evening shows and $35 for matinees. Student tickets cost $22.
Purchase tickets online at www.theatreorangeville.ca or call 1-800-424-1295.
Baco Noir is also playing at Theatre Collingwood from May 26-30. Purchase tickets at theatrecollingwood.ca or call 1-866-382-2200.