A production of rare quality

Editor,

This past Saturday night was truly Hockey Night in Canada for the hundreds of us from the town and country who packed the Jubilee Theatre to the rafters for the premiere of Marlene Campbell's new play, "The Dressing Room".

Marlene's no-holds-barred tale of Paul MacWilliams, the hometown hockey hero who had it all at 15, lost it all at 20 and found it all again in mid-life, is easily the gutsiest, noblest and funniest thing I've seen on an Island stage.

Bravo to Paul for baring his soul for all to see, to Marlene for grinding it out in the corners for the victory, to Marlane O'Brien for her Scotty Bowman smarts behind the bench, and to the beer league (or is it beer belly) gang of Thane Clarke, Vernon Campbell, Albert Gaudet, Don Purich and Jon Rehder for their rollicking Falstaff-in-a-jockstrap antics.

And if Bill McFadden, who plays Paul MacWilliams, isn't the best Island actor around, then I'll eat my Jacques Plante tuque.

As for me, I should've brought my 10-year-old goalie son Ty to the Jubilee Saturday night, the way others brought their own young sons, for Marlene's play throws light on that touchiest human relationship of all - the not-always Bondfast bond between a father and a son.

My own dad Lorne, a flashy hockey player with the Bedeque Beavers, good enough for a tryout with Dick Irvin's NHL Montreal Maroons, would've laughed his Esso service station brush-cut off.

And, for sure, the late and great Angie Carroll would have seen in Paul's story of NHL laurels lost, his own story. For it is the story of dozens of our PEI Sports Hall of Famers.

I believe, too, that even Wanda Wyatt would be fascinated at the potential for "The Dressing Room", for Marlene's play is now the most portable of all of the Wyatt Heritage Properties. And I, for one, expect it will one day tour the length and breadth of our hockey-loving nation.

"If these old walls of Cahill Stadium and Steele Arena could talk," the over-the-hill gang mutter as they tape up the knobs on their hockey sticks for the umpteenth time... "If these old walls could speak..."

Well, thanks to Paul and Marlene, those old walls just did speak.

Wayne Wright

Summerside