Rural humour is back with Jake and the Kid

Manny Everett

Times Contributor

 

The popular book Jake and the Kid, written by W.O. Mitchell (1961), originated in stories written for Maclean’s. The series ran weekly on CBC Radio from 1950-56 and made Mitchell a national celebrity.

This summer Rosebud’s Theatre Opera house brings Mitchell’s humor back to the stage in Jake and the Kid. This humorous “growing up” story will transport audiences back to fictional Crocus, Saskatchewan, where a young boy and the family’s hired hand Jake forge a friendship through changing seasons.

The production focuses on three of Mitchell’s Jake and the Kid stories (The Day Jake Made Her Rain, Cabin Fever and You Gotta Teeter) into a two-act play with tall-tale story lines, colorful vernacular dialogue and poetic descriptions of Canada’s prairies. Combined, the show successfully brings to the stage the cantankerous hired hand Jake, the Kid, the Kid’s Ma and Old Man Gatenby, who reappears in the stories as Jake’s neighborly nemesis and a CBC reporter.

Nathan Schmidt, a resident actor of the theatre has had a number of memorable roles in the productions, so who better suited to play Jake than him? According to Schmidt, “the fun of playing characters like daddy Sherry and Jake is that they are refreshingly honest, headstrong and lovable. I relish the opportunity to attack and speak impulsively rather than thinking before I act … the punch lines are perfect and the humor lands every time. It is a treat to get to play these roles.”

Jake and the Kid: Prairie Seasons plays on the Rosebud Theatre Opera House stage Wednesdays to Saturdays until July then it plays Wednesday to Sundays until August 28. Matinee and evening performances are scheduled. Please call Rosebud Theatre Box Office for reservations at 1-800-267-7553. More information can be found at www.rosebudtheatre.com.