​Sold-out crowd hoots and honks at Kincardine's Walker House play, "A His-story of Women"

A sold-out crowd was hooting, hollering and honking at the performance of "A His-story of Women or Everything Men Ought to Know About the Fairer Sex but Never Cared to Ask," Friday night (April 17), at the Kincardine Legion.

It was all in good fun and part of the heritage dinner and play in support of the Paddy Walker Heritage Society.

About 150 people enjoyed a delicious roast beef dinner, followed by the play, written by Graham Mahood. The evening also included a live auction, and raffle prizes.

Sylvia Leigh, president of the heritage society, welcomed everyone and thanked the community for its continued support of the Walker House and local history. She also thanked the players and Mahood who is one of the essential volunteers at the Walker House, the many sponsors of the event, the Legion, and those who donated raffle prizes.

Maria Riggin took bids during the live auction, which featured a blanked donated by Robert Fletcher, and a George's on Harbour and Inn on the Harbour gift package donated by Chef Alex Lussier and the Showalter family.

The play then began, with narrator Barry Neilson, musicians Patt Lowry and Brian Tovey; the Women: Jaki Mayer Duggan, Jenn Peters, Karen Yun, Sally Lichtenberg, Lydia Treidlinger, Emily Cassidy, Cathy Ellis and Ellie Peters; and the men: Sid Duggan, John Low, Robert Fletcher, Dominic Celeste, Jared Petrie, Dave Carson and Steve McGibney. Stage manager was Jane McGibney, and Holly McAdam was in charge of costumes.

Noise-maker horns were handed out to the women in the crowd, and Neilson said that the troupe had endeavoured to remove any gender bias from the play, but if they saw anything inappropriate during the show, they should blow their horns.

"Then we'll know what you're angry about," he said, and received a blast from the horns. "If you women find the horns too difficult to operate ..." [honk!]

The show started in the beginning with the story of Adam and Eve in the Garden of Eden and continued through history, with much begatting, and much of the blame ending where it surely belonged, squarely on the men. However, they were clueless and couldn't understand why the women were so upset, given that everyone recognized the dominance of men over women [honk!].

Then came 1848 when Paddy and Jane Walker and their son, Robert, discussed leaving Ireland and travelling to Canada. Paddy wanted to set up the finest inn in the nation, with Jane expected to do all the work.

"You expect me to leave my home, travel 3,000 miles away, and do all the cooking and cleaning and wash all the clothes for our family and for all your customers," says Jane, who takes a stand singing "I Am A Woman," ending with "I can do anything and I'll surely make a man out of you!"

Then came the women's suffrage movement as they fought for the right to vote. However, the politicians of the day argued against it. In 1921, the federal election allowed women to vote and of the three-million people who voted, almost half were women.

Agnes McPhail, who hailed from this area, was the first woman to win a seat in the House of Commons. For 19 years, she advocated for many at the federal level.

In 1929, women were finally considered to be qualified people and were eligible to sit in the Senate.

For the men, not being equal was not as much fun! And they finally had to admit they would never win the battle of the sexes.

Amidst all this, Paddy and Jane arrived in Kincardine to build their new life in Canada. He became the first male feminist, and Kincardine became a beacon of enlightenment.

The show was amazing, complete with stellar acting and singing by all the performers.

A shout-out to June Daniel who began the Walker House heritage plays more than 25 years ago.