Teatro la Quindicina keeps their eyes on the Pies

It seems that pies are emerging as a significant factor on the arts scene lately. Sweeney Todd, Pushing Daisies, and now the latest confection from Teatro La Quindicina, Thrubwell’s Pies, which will be bringing pastry-packed goodness to the Varscona stage this fall.

“It’s a big honour,” exclaims Belinda Cornish, the play’s author. “I did my first show with Teatro in—I think it was 2005—with A Grand Time in the Rapids. What’s great about it is, it’s such an actor’s theatre company—like, Jeff [Haslam, the director] is an actor himself, so he knows what we need to hear. And I don’t mean him saying, ‘Oh, you guys are brilliant’—although he does say that. But he knows how the notes sound to an actor. He knows how to concisely tell us what to do.”

Cornish, who co-wrote a few shows with her production company Panties Productions, got her first big play-writing experience earlier this year when she penned the hysterical British crime caper Diamond Dog in a co-production with THEATrePUBLIC.

“It’s pretty fun because Diamond Dog is sort of the complete opposite of [Thrubwell’s Pies],” Cornish says, in somewhat of an understatement. “There’s a lot of swearing, punching, and things like that.”

Indeed, the lavish script of Diamond Dog often seemed to have more profanity than actual lines of dialogue, along with violence, gunplay, murder, and various other altercations. But Edmonton audiences lapped up the vulgarity, which not only gave Diamond Dog a victory lap at the Fringe this summer, but helped Cornish land the job of writing a slightly more G-rated script to finish up Teatro La Quindicina’s spring-summer season.

“And in this play, there’s no swearing at all. And less punching,” Cornish explains of the script with a chuckle. “Well, there isn’t actually any punching in this play. A bit of flapping, but not so much with the punching.”

Thrubwell’s Pies is a self-described “vivacious thriller” set in the mansion of Alicia Montague (Sheri Somerville), the elderly heiress to an enormous windfall in the pie industry. Foibles and follies galore follow the characters who surround the wealthy inheritor, from her young husband Shepton (Mark Meer), young neighbourhood upstart baker Nettie Thrubwell (Amy Shostak), and the inefficient maid Scrofula (Cornish).

“Scrofula? It’s actually another name for tuberculosis,” says Cornish, who’s playing the role of the lung-disease-named servant. “I just thought it was funny; it’s like calling somebody
‘Whooping Cough.’ ”

But her background as an actress is probably what Cornish is known best for within the Edmonton theatre community. If anything, though, her acting background only contributes to her playwriting experience.

“I think they definitely help each other. And I’m also an improviser, on top of everything, so that contributes,” she says, adding that she’s also done some directing work with Panties Production for their 2003’s Guns ’n’ Roses musical Paradise City. As she explains, all the different roles bring something new to her role as a playwright.

“You hear voices in a sense—how the lines should be said, and how they should come out. It also helps that the cast was sorted out beforehand. Jeff and I sat down and chatted about the actors, so I knew who I was writing for.”

The versatile cast unites Teatro regulars like Somerville with Teatro newcomers like Shostak. Like the performers, Cornish is certain that Thrubwell’s Pies will be a scrumptious treat for all audience members, be they fans of the company or just dessert aficionados.

“There’s a pie in the face—that might make people come.” Then Cornish laughs again. “I’m giving far too much away now.”