In this first-ever collaboration between Ship’s Company Theatre and Theatre New Brunswick, Parrsboro audiences get first look at the world premiere of Any Given Moment by Kim Parkhill.
This timely original script brings three random strangers together to face a situation that could easily be ripped from today’s headlines. Lisa (Alexis Milligan), an upper middle-class helicopter mom, Emma (Claudia Gutierrez-Perez), a twenty-something with a severe case of the existential crisis blues, and Bill (Wally MacKinnon), an aging homeless man from the sticks, are all thrown together by circumstance — or maybe it’s fate?
Three strangers, who would typically be separated by economic class, life experience and ideology, are forced into a shared experience punctuated by fear, conflict and revelation. Set in present-day, small-town Canada, where ‘nothing happens,’ this play explores how anything can happen, and it does.
“Parkhill’s play is an excellent example of global concerns being local concerns, too. We tend to believe something like this could never happen to us … and then, it does. Some really scary things have happened close to home,” says Natasha MacLellan, outgoing artistic producer of Ship’s Company Theatre and director of the show. “The Moncton shooter a few years ago, the mass shooting at a Halifax mall that almost happened … pretty much everyone has been touched by a large-scale act of violence.”
Any Given Moment stars Alexis Milligan, Wally MacKinnon and Claudia Gutierrez-Perez. Milligan and Guiterrez-Perez are making their Ship’s debut while audience members may remember MacKinnon from past shows such as The Net, Jacob’s Wake, The Chairmaker and Miles From Home.
“I really tried to tap into the concerns of today for all generations and I think audiences of all ages will connect to these characters,” says Parkhill.
This will be MacLellan’s swan song at Ship’s Company as she is set to join Theatre New Brunswick later this fall as the Artistic Director. “I’m really excited to bring this original show to life with the help of Theatre New Brunswick,” MacLellan says. “I’m hoping people relate to the fears and anxieties of these everyday people at the same time as enjoy the suspense and tension of the piece.”
Any Given Moment takes the main stage Aug. 8 and will run through until Sept. 2. Tickets and more information are available at: www.shipscompanytheatre.com or by calling 1-800-565-SHOW (7469).
