Audience to get a glimpse of "The Tartan Lady" at the Walker House this weekend

By: Liz Dadson October 26, 2016 1797

Audience to get a glimpse of "The Tartan Lady" at the Walker House this weekend

It's a haunting tale. And what better place to tell it, then on Halloween weekend at the Walker House in Kincardine.

That's the setting for "The Tartan Lady," the most recent play under development by Sundown Theatre.

The show begins with a troupe of travelling players that arrives in Kincardine and is trying to decide what story to tell. The actors learn of a haunted portrait and the yarn spins from there, with story, song and dance.

Producer and actor Mariel Marshall says the weekend performances are a way of sharing this piece with the community. The plan is to build on that and then consider developing it for a complete two-week theatre run.

For that reason, the play is being showcased in an intimate setting, the Walker House pub, with only 20 tickets available each night.

Joining Marshall, a Kincardine native now living in Toronto, are fellow actors, Chiamaka Ugwu, Maddie Bautista and Eli Ham, with director Clare Preuss, lighting director Lin Lay, and costume designer Lindsay Woods, all of Toronto. Also a shout-out to Matthew Thomas Walker and Neena Bickersteth for their assistance with this play.

Preuss says that in the play, the troupe decides to tell the story of the haunted portrait of a woman, which was stolen during the Jacobite rising of 1745. The British defeated the rising and that was the end of Highland culture. The portrait was taken back to Blackwell Grange in England and then over a century later, British Lieutenant Robert Hodgson, who has the portrait, is haunted by the Tartan Lady.

"This show is great storytelling," says Preuss. "It's structured improv, with audience interaction and lots of jokes and fun. It gets a bit raucous but we have a lot of fun too. It's an intimate setting, and the actors sing around the piano and move in and around the tables."

"The Tartan Lady" runs Friday, Oct. 28, and Saturday, Oct. 29, at 7:30 p.m. at the Walker House. Doors open at 7 p.m. Tickets are $15 each; available at Jerome Flowers in downtown Kincardine.