Author of the article:Fish Griwkowsky
Publishing date:Nov 04, 2021 •
Donovan Workun and Abby Vanderberghe
as Premier Jason Kenney and Dr. Deena Hinshaw.
PHOTO BY SUPPLIED /Postmedia
In the midst of a global pandemic with a rising Delta variant, you could almost hear the collective eyeroll scraping province-wide when Premier Jason Kenney boldly declared 2021 would be the “Best Summer Ever.”
And we all certainly, tragically witnessed how that act of questionable branding played out — Alberta reliably leading the country in COVID-19 infection stats as numbers inevitably continued an upward trend, and with it the premier’s approval rating dropping to 22 per cent in October, the lowest of all Canadian premiers.
A feeling of mass frustration and helplessness was — and clearly is — widespread. But after a series of hilarious, biting parody videos of Kenney and Dr. Deena Hinshaw’s once-frequent online updates, which culminated in a streaming Christmas special last year, a number of the brighter minds over at Grinsdtone Theatre have turned this awful backdrop into — what else — comedy theatre.
Specifically, as a musical, no less.
Starting Nov. 10, and running most nights at 7 p.m. through Nov. 21, Jason Kenney’s Hot Boy Summer the Musical will play at Campus Saint-Jean over in Bonnie Doon.
Directed by Byron Martin, who co-wrote the play with Simon Abbott, the premier is played by Donovan Workun as its hard-done-by main character. He’s backed by Abby Vanderberghe as Hinshaw, Stephanie Wolfe as Rachel Notley and Malachi Wilkins as Justin Trudeau who happens to be Notley’s boyfriend in this Kenney-centric college summer world.
“They’re all in summer semester at Alberta University,” explains Martin, “and Kenney’s just won student union president. And he promises his frat the best party ever.”
Martin assures audiences of a number of things, including the material being fresh.
“We did 90 per cent of the writing in the last six weeks — we turned this around in a crazy fast amount of time,” he explains. “People are going to come and see, basically, a classic frat movie, so it’s kind of interesting because everything we wrote had to kind of fit into that world.”
Rounding out the cast are Kathleen Sera, Mark Sinongco, Tyre Banda and Sarah Dowling playing various roles including Tyler Shandro in the ‘80s frat party song cycle about Kenney trying to throw this perfect party, despite scolding opposition from his various buzzkills including, you know, the earth-wide plague.
And, speaking of which, proof of vaccination is absolutely required to get in.
Kenney is very much the hero of the play; Notley and Trudeau the villains.
“It’s pretty heavy satire,” Martin notes. “It’s kind of like this is the play he wrote with the ‘War Room’ when he disappeared for all those weeks.”
Asked if he hopes the premier shows up, Martin laughs, “I’m kind of terrified he will. I kind of hope so. I don’t know, it depends if he has a sense of humour.
“I’m also nervous for Notley to see it, because we don’t actually see her as a villain.
“Malika is so funny as Justin Trudeau, he’s been killing me. And so, if you’re a conservative who complains about Trudeau all the time like people I know? They’re going to love it.”
Songs in the cycle include Kenney singing about a rodeo, Trudeau trying to woo Notley to Ottawa and a theatre version of former municipal affairs minister Tracy Allard singing a number called Aloha.
Tickets are $30, available at grindstonetheatre.ca, and keep an eye out for our a review in the Journal next week.
fgriwkowsky@postmedia.com
@fisheyefoto
In the midst of a global pandemic with a rising Delta variant, you could almost hear the collective eyeroll scraping province-wide when Premier Jason Kenney boldly declared 2021 would be the “Best Summer Ever.”
And we all certainly, tragically witnessed how that act of questionable branding played out — Alberta reliably leading the country in COVID-19 infection stats as numbers inevitably continued an upward trend, and with it the premier’s approval rating dropping to 22 per cent in October, the lowest of all Canadian premiers.
A feeling of mass frustration and helplessness was — and clearly is — widespread. But after a series of hilarious, biting parody videos of Kenney and Dr. Deena Hinshaw’s once-frequent online updates, which culminated in a streaming Christmas special last year, a number of the brighter minds over at Grinsdtone Theatre have turned this awful backdrop into — what else — comedy theatre.
Specifically, as a musical, no less.
Starting Nov. 10, and running most nights at 7 p.m. through Nov. 21, Jason Kenney’s Hot Boy Summer the Musical will play at Campus Saint-Jean over in Bonnie Doon.
Directed by Byron Martin, who co-wrote the play with Simon Abbott, the premier is played by Donovan Workun as its hard-done-by main character. He’s backed by Abby Vanderberghe as Hinshaw, Stephanie Wolfe as Rachel Notley and Malachi Wilkins as Justin Trudeau who happens to be Notley’s boyfriend in this Kenney-centric college summer world.
“They’re all in summer semester at Alberta University,” explains Martin, “and Kenney’s just won student union president. And he promises his frat the best party ever.”
Martin assures audiences of a number of things, including the material being fresh.
“We did 90 per cent of the writing in the last six weeks — we turned this around in a crazy fast amount of time,” he explains. “People are going to come and see, basically, a classic frat movie, so it’s kind of interesting because everything we wrote had to kind of fit into that world.”
Rounding out the cast are Kathleen Sera, Mark Sinongco, Tyre Banda and Sarah Dowling playing various roles including Tyler Shandro in the ‘80s frat party song cycle about Kenney trying to throw this perfect party, despite scolding opposition from his various buzzkills including, you know, the earth-wide plague.
And, speaking of which, proof of vaccination is absolutely required to get in.
Kenney is very much the hero of the play; Notley and Trudeau the villains.
“It’s pretty heavy satire,” Martin notes. “It’s kind of like this is the play he wrote with the ‘War Room’ when he disappeared for all those weeks.”
Asked if he hopes the premier shows up, Martin laughs, “I’m kind of terrified he will. I kind of hope so. I don’t know, it depends if he has a sense of humour.
“I’m also nervous for Notley to see it, because we don’t actually see her as a villain.
“Malika is so funny as Justin Trudeau, he’s been killing me. And so, if you’re a conservative who complains about Trudeau all the time like people I know? They’re going to love it.”
Songs in the cycle include Kenney singing about a rodeo, Trudeau trying to woo Notley to Ottawa and a theatre version of former municipal affairs minister Tracy Allard singing a number called Aloha.
Tickets are $30, available at grindstonetheatre.ca, and keep an eye out for our a review in the Journal next week.
fgriwkowsky@postmedia.com
@fisheyefoto
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