The Highland Arts Theatre in Sydney, Nova Scotia, became one of the first indoor theatre companies in Canada to resume live shows on Monday night.
Daniel MacIvor, the Siminovitch Prize-winning playwright and one of the many prides of Cape Breton, was the first up on stage in front of an audience, performing a newly revised, pandemic-updated version of his 1991 solo show, House. He’ll be performing the play for the rest of the month in repertory with the off-Broadway musical John and Jen, a two-hander starring local “rising stars” Emily O’Leary and Kevin Munroe.
This is not a return to business as usual for the six-year-old company also known as The HAT, however – and not just because, following Nova Scotia health guidelines, the audience is being limited to about 50 people a night, or 12.5 per cent of the 400-seat venue’s usual capacity.
