The Red Dot Players
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  • Past Productions
    • The Beaux' Stratagem (2011)
    • Blithe Spirit (2012)
    • Les Belles-Soeurs (2013)
    • The Government Inspector (2014)
    • The Black Bonspiel of Wullie MacCrimmon (2015)
    • The Infernal Machinations of Dr. Mordeau (2015)
    • A.K.A. Fangirl (2016)
    • Sense and Sensibility (2017)
    • Neverwhere (2018)
    • Pride and Prejudice (2019)
    • Vanity Fair (2020)
    • Special Guest (2021)
    • Wonder of the Age (Winter 2022)
    • Folk Tales: Grimm & Otherwise (Fall 2022)
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  • Fall 2023 Auditions
Wonder of the Age
by Jeremy Beaulne

March 10th-13th, 2022
To think, in a few short minutes we shall make the acquaintance of the woman who shall
transform all we know of natural philosophy! And obstetrics! And theology! I am simply beside myself, Obadiah.
​In 1726, Mary Toft, an illiterate peasant from the village of Godalming, England, became the talk of London when she convinced several prominent physicians—including Nathanael St. André, anatomist to the Royal Household—that she had given birth to seventeen rabbits. When Toft’s hoax was exposed, the doctors she had fooled were satirized in the popular press, and several reputations were ruined. Toft herself was denounced as an “Abominable Cheat & Imposture” and incarcerated in Bridewell Prison for four months. There has been much speculation about what might have motivated Toft’s hoax and how much agency she had in the deception…

Wonder of the Age, the Red Dot Players’ Spring 2022 production, is a fictionalized account of the story of Mary Toft, set in the fashionable Westminster bagnio where Toft was held while all of London debated the veracity of her claim—and waited for her to give birth to another rabbit!
CAST
JENNY BOYD: Elizabeth Flowers
NATHANAEL ST. ANDRÉ: Brandon Benner
NELL POCKET: Kendra Holly Grant
SUZE VEAL: Ashley Johnson
OBADIAH SQUIB: Harry Grossmith
JONATHAN SWALLOW: Steven Taylor
SIR RICHARD MANNINGHAM: Harsh Hundal
MARY TOFT: Emily Hardy
 
CREW
DIRECTOR: Jeremy Beaulne
STAGE MANAGER: Joe Arduini
COSTUME COORDINATOR: Ashley Johnson  
COSTUME CREW: Polly Chaiboripan, Kendra Holly Grant, Ashley Johnson, Karen Tessier
LIGHTING DESIGNER: Mike Minions
PROPERTIES DIRECTOR: Bev Arduini
POSTER DESIGNER: Emilia Kennedy
PHOTOGRAPHER: Denise Johnson
SET DESIGNER: Joe Arduini
SOUND DESIGNER: Jeremy Beaulne
Picture
Poster designed by Okanagan College Writing & Publishing student Emilia Kennedy.
Picture
Photograph by Denise Johnson

College’s Red Dot Players return to the stage with Wonder of the Age

Curtain up! After a two-year, pandemic-imposed hiatus, Okanagan College’s theatre troupe, the Red Dot Players, are bringing back the wonder of live theatre this March.

Wonder of the Age
 is an original comedy by playwright and director Jeremy Beaulne about a medical hoax that scandalized eighteenth-century London. The show will run March 10-13 in the theatre at OC’s Kelowna Campus, 1000 KLO Road at the following times:
  • Thursday, March 10, 7:30 p.m.
  • Friday, March 11, 7:30 p.m.
  • Saturday, March 12, 7:30 p.m.
  • Sunday, March 13, 2 p.m.
Tickets are available at www.reddotplayers.com and at the door.

“We presented our last Red Dot Players show, Vanity Fair, the week before everything was shut down by the pandemic,” explains Beaulne, who is also a Professor in the English department at OC. “Two years later, it is exhilarating to be back in the theatre and working on a new production.”


The play will transport audiences over the Atlantic and all the way back to 1726, to hear a fictionalized account of Mary Toft, an illiterate peasant from the village of Godalming, England. Toft became the talk of London when she convinced several prominent physicians—including Nathanael St. André, anatomist to the Royal Household—that she had given birth to seventeen rabbits.


When Toft’s hoax was exposed, the doctors she had fooled were satirized in the popular press, and several reputations were ruined.

“Toft herself was denounced as an “Abominable Cheat & Imposture” and incarcerated in Bridewell Prison for four months,” notes Beaulne. “There has been much speculation about what might have motivated Toft’s hoax and how much agency she had in the deception.”

Wonder of the Age
 is set in the fashionable Westminster bagnio where Toft was held while all of London debated the veracity of her claim—and waited for her to give birth to another rabbit.


For their part, the Red Dot players have been waiting anxiously to get back to the stage in front of a live audience.


​“Although some of us have learned to appreciate Zoom theatre over the course of the pandemic, it cannot match the rush of performing in front of a live audience,” says Beaulne. “We’re very excited to transport audiences back to the early 1700s as we tell the strange-but-true story of the Rabbit Woman of Godalming!”


This play is recommended for mature audiences. As per provincial COVID-19 health mandates, all audience members must by fully vaccinated (vaccine passports will be verified at the door) and masks are mandatory.
Picture
Photograph by Denise Johnson
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  • Home
  • About
  • Past Productions
    • The Beaux' Stratagem (2011)
    • Blithe Spirit (2012)
    • Les Belles-Soeurs (2013)
    • The Government Inspector (2014)
    • The Black Bonspiel of Wullie MacCrimmon (2015)
    • The Infernal Machinations of Dr. Mordeau (2015)
    • A.K.A. Fangirl (2016)
    • Sense and Sensibility (2017)
    • Neverwhere (2018)
    • Pride and Prejudice (2019)
    • Vanity Fair (2020)
    • Special Guest (2021)
    • Wonder of the Age (Winter 2022)
    • Folk Tales: Grimm & Otherwise (Fall 2022)
  • Contact
  • Links
  • Fall 2023 Auditions