While attending a dinner party, playwright Kristen Thomson overheard the hostess telling a story about a worst-case-scenario wedding. She vividly recalled how the bride’s side and the groom’s side engaged in verbal fisticuffs, lobbing increasingly cutting insults at one another as the evening went on. Thomson was unable to get the story out of her head, and wound up using it as the inspiration for her riotous comedy: The Wedding Party.
Playing on the Goldcorp Stage at the BMO Theatre Centre from February 27 to March 22, The Wedding Party premiered in 2017 at Crow’s Theatre—where it was so well received that it was brought back the next year—and was then followed by a 2019 run at the National Arts Centre in Ottawa. The play was initially developed through improv sessions with five actors—Trish Lindström, Tony Nappo, Moya O’Connell, Tom Rooney, and Bahia Watson—who are also credited with creating the characters.
In The Wedding Party, six cast members play over 20 different characters at a wedding at which the newlyweds are offstage and the two families are at each other’s throats. The father of the groom saves a seat for the dog, a long-lost twin confuses everyone, and the bride’s mother is cut off from the wine. Audiences can grab a ringside seat for all the laughs, debauchery, disagreements, and love as this changing cast of characters keeps them howling right up to the final dance.
On this programming choice, Artistic Director Ashlie Corcoran said, “The Wedding Party is a perfectly modern, laugh-out-loud comedy. The play presents us with a whole gaggle of unruly wedding guests, none of whom seem excited about the wedding at hand, but all of whom provide us with a lot of laughs.”
February 27 to March 22
Goldcorp Stage at the BMO Theatre Centre
SHOWTIMES
Tue–Thu at 7:30 PM, Fri and Sat at 8 PM, Wed at 1:30 PM, and Sat & Sun at 2 PM
Tuesday Talkback: Tue, March 17, at 7:30 PM
Tickets from $29 at www.artsclub.com or the Arts Club Box Office at 604.687.1644
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