Dead Man’s Cell Phone is the second production by UFV Theatre Department opening Jan. 13 in Chilliwack, promising dark humour and an accidental protagonist.
An incessantly ringing cell phone in a quiet café, a stranger who has had enough, and a dead man with some loose ends. So begins this intriguing and funny work.
Directed by UFV Theatre department head Dr. Bruce Kirkley, who also directed last year’s production of Shakespeare’s The Tempest, the cast is comprised mostly UFV theatre students.
Dead Man’s Cell Phone is a play that examines how we memorialize the dead, and how that remembering changes us. It is the odyssey of a woman forced to confront her own assumptions about morality, redemption and the need to connect in a world obsessed with technology.
Jean is the accidental protagonist, played by Renee Reeve. J.D. Dueckman takes the role of the dead man, Gordon, and UFV English instructor Virginia Cooke plays his mother, Mrs. Gottlieb. Colleen Plenert plays his widow, Hermia and Brandon Mindel, his brother Dwight. Other multiple roles are performed by Natasha Ray, Liam Archer and Melissa Harris.
Set design for this production is by Lisa Apps, with costume design by Catrina Lewis. Lighting design is by Mark Sutherland and sound design by Gabriel Kirkley. Stage manager is Rebekah Briscoe.
Dead Man’s Cell Phone runs for two weeks only, opening on Friday, Jan. 13 at 7:30 p.m. in the theatre on the UFV Chilliwack campus, with half-price previews on Wednesday and Thursday, Jan. 11 and Jan. 12 and plays Jan. 14, 18, 19, 20 and 21 at 7:30 p.m. with two Sunday matinees on Jan.15 and Jan. 22 at 2 p.m. Tickets $9 to $20. Warning: some coarse language. Tickets and info at 604-795-2814 or email theatre@ufv.ca or www.ufv.ca/theatre