The New Canadian Curling Club is a brand new comedy about immigration, community, and national identity—with a heart as big as Canada itself!
Inspired by the local refugee resettlement program, a small town organizes a Learn-to-Curl class to welcome newcomers. But when its organizer slips on the ice and breaks her hip, the rink’s ice maker and former champion curler Stuart MacPhail is forced to step in as head coach. Trouble is, Stuart has some strong opinions about immigrants...
What follows is an inspiring and hilarious story of a group of unlikely athletes who face off against local prejudice and claim their identity as “new Canadians”. Don’t miss the hit comedy about burning rocks, bonspiel beers, and becoming a team.
Audience Recommendation: This production contains language and mature themes. Recommended for ages 13 and up. There is no official rating system for live theatre. We encourage you to use your judgment based on your child's age and maturity level.
The New Canadian Curling Club is a compelling story that champions the values of acceptance, diversity, inclusivity, and community. Like many impactful theatrical experiences, the journey towards a deeper understanding of others' perspectives is marked by conflict. This play delves into the complex themes surrounding the lived experiences of newcomers and tackles the subject matter with mature language and race-based jokes. We hope that these thought-provoking themes spark meaningful discussions, fostering a culture of kindness and an appreciation for our differences, which ultimately contribute to the strength of our communities and our nation.
A Note From The Playwright:
Stop me if you’ve heard this one: a Chinese guy, an Indian guy, a Jamaican lady, and a Syrian refugee walk into a curling club… It sounds like the set-up to a joke, but it’s actually the premise of this play. In fact, The New Canadian Curling Club begins with characters cracking jokes…or rather, attempting to. Their individual ideas of what’s funny don’t always land with the other people on stage!
On the surface, The New Canadian Curling Club is a comedy about a group of new Canadians who sign up for a Learn to Curl night. But it doesn’t stop there. As a playwright, I’ve used the familiar genre of an underdog sports comedy to tackle some more serious themes: immigration, community, racism, small-town prejudice, and even the question of national identity.
That’s not to say this is a heavy play. All of the characters employ humour for a variety of reasons: to lighten the mood, to entertain, to commiserate, to find common ground, but also to establish status, to distance themselves from others, and to belittle, or even attack. Because it’s live theatre, the audience is an active participant in the comedy. Just as people use humour in various ways, our responses come from innumerable sources: delight, surprise, shock, discomfort, recognition, connection…I could go on and on. Sometimes, we laugh to deflect deeper emotions, or to protect ourselves from the darkness of a situation. Having seen several different productions of this play, some of my favourite laughs are the ones where audience members start laughing, then catch themselves, then question whether or not they should be laughing, and then laugh at their own discomfort from having laughed in the first place. We are complex emotional beings, aren’t we?
By all means: please laugh along with the characters in this play! In addition to eliciting chuckles and guffaws, I hope the story makes you feel something. And I hope, maybe, the play even makes you think.
Thank you for coming to The New Canadian Curling Club, and thank you for attending live theatre. Enjoy the show!
~Mark Crawford
Running Time: 2 hours including a 20 minute intermission.
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