Theatre Trinity Review

By: Taryn Bratz
Photo Credit: Katelyn Robles

On Friday March 6th, Holy Trinity’s theatre group, Theatre Trinity, presented The Mill Part 1: Now We Are Brody, written by the Canadian playwright Matthew MacFadzean (who was in attendance yesterday evening) at the annual Sears Drama Festival. After taking two awards home, this production was then presented to Holy Trinity’s community on March 9th and again in an encore performance on March 27th.

This year, the drama department chose not only a Canadian, but a French-Canadian play, which was reminiscent of our previous education of the Coureur de Bois.

In the play, Charlotte MacGonigal (Emma Palozzi) comes back with the deed to her father’s sawmill that he left to her in his will. The townsfolk, Alexandre Martinique (Luca D’Amico), Rebecca Jessup (Chelsie Pacheco) and Lighthorn Milton (Aidan Kenny) reject this as they try to leave the haunting past behind them. With the return of Charlotte’s husband, Preacher William Fox (Andrew King), he too tries to persuade Charlotte to leave the mill as he realizes that staying there is dangerous for her health. Charlotte then finds out that her father killed a young girl by the name of Lyca (Kate Ingman), who now haunts the mill. Charlotte herself soon becomes of the possessive nature.

The cast of this year's play obviously spent countless hours rehearsing as everything was well timed and no one forgot a line. Luca D’Amico-who plays the lumberjack-exhibited strong acting skills as he wowed the audience with his French-Canadian accent. Emma Palozzi carried the production with her fantastic use of emotion as she provided the perfect amount of dramatization throughout. Preacher William Fox, played by Andrew King, displayed fantastic use of exaggeration and provided extremely amusing comedic relief. Lastly, Lyca, portrayed by Kate Ingman, captivated the audience with her eerie performance of the mill’s haunting ghost.

From the lightning strikes to the sound of the saw, the attention to detail of the visual and audio effects was creative and truly added to the play. The set decoration was also very well done. The wood walls were extremely detailed and looked like actual wood. The sawmill also looked very realistic and at one point of the play, it actually moved!

The ghost’s chorus was performed by Danika LeBlanc, Nicole Lemieux, Thomas O’Malley, and Bianca Taylor. The chorus was creepy and hair-raising, which set both the tone and the mood for this outstanding performance. The cast thanks the backstage crew and everyone involved in putting on this incredible production.

Judging by the audience’s reaction, they seemed to have thoroughly enjoyed this year's production for our Sears Drama Festival, making it yet another successful year for Theatre Trinity!