November 3, Vancouver- Recently I had the pleasure of taking in the Saints’ Players production of “The Philadelphia Story”. Performed at the newly renovated St. Georges Auditorium, the show was a great example of teamwork within the school community. With Saints players, theatre production and stagecraft all coming together to produce the show.

The stunning set was beautiful and eloquently planned. Built by the St. Georges stagecraft class, the set brought a realistic feeling of the lord’s house right to St. Georges. The set included a photo of former Teacher Florence LeBlanc who passed away last year. Director Luke Fredeman dedicated the performance to LeBlanc as “The Philadelphia story” was the first play Leblanc was not in attendance.

The plot, revolved around a love battle between Macaulay Connor (Hamish Marissen-Clark), George Kittridge (Alex Negraeff), and Dexter Haven(Joe Goetz) over the desirable Tracy Lord (Cassidy Reichmann) . At the outset, Tracy, her mother Margaret and sister Dinah are talking about the upcoming wedding, in which Tracy is scheduled to be wed to George. Tracy questions whether she wants to go through with the wedding, as her life unravels before her. Battling feelings for Mr. Connor as well as George, we see Tracy’s struggle for happiness throughout the performance.

It was a very strong performance from all the actors, but some performances stood out from the rest. Among the standouts were grade 11 students Cassidy Reichman in her role as Tracy. As well as Hamish Marrisen Clarke who showed brightly in his portrayal of Mr. Connor, Tracy’s side love interest.

In an interview with Hamish after the final performance, he highlighted the group effort that went into producing the play; saying “To put a production like this together in the amount of time we had is a feat I wasn’t sure was possible.” The play was prepared in record time this year, with the opening nearly a whole week sooner than in years past. Hamish also spoke to the camaraderie of this year’s unique cast    “This year’s cast came together in a truly special way. It was a unique senior production, as the vast majority of the cast consisted of grade elevens.” The closeness of the cast was evident in the performance, as the chemistry helped to immerse the audience.

“The Philadelphia story” was shown at the beginning of November; a time that can be very stressing for some students. The play is a welcome break for all the students to relax and be a part of the school community rather than focusing solely on their grades.

Saints players will continue their season with the junior school performing “Robin and the Sherwood hoodies” this February. Followed by the middle schools “Larceny and old lace” to close the 2017-18 saints players season.