Eleven actors took to the stage at the St. Andrew’s-Knox United Church in Bristol on Sunday evening for their final performance of a radio play rendition of The Princess and the Goblin, a Pontiac Community Players holiday production.
The 19th century fairytale, written by George MacDonald who is known to have influenced the likes of J.R.R. Tolkien and C.S. Lewis, was interpreted and adapted by director Greg Graham who rewrote the story to be performed on air.
“You can do anything with a radio play,” Graham told THE EQUITY ahead of the show. “You can set your story anywhere on earth, or anywhere you’d like. With a bit of well timed sound effects and people using their voices, you get this really neat effect.”
Graham’s modern interpretation told the story of the young Princess Irene, played by Ava Schellenberg, who, with an absent father and dead mother, lives mostly alone in a large castle, in an undefined location, and an undefined time.
Princess Irene works to uncover some of the big questions about why she is alone, encouraged in this journey by the castle’s cook Elspeth, played by Katherine MacGregor, and equally discouraged by her nurse Lootie, played by Carole Valin.
As she does so, she encounters the world of goblins who lurk in the underground, jealous of all that the humans have, and ready to kidnap and kill in their quest for justice.
One night, when a goblin comes to kidnap Princess Irene from the castle, she flees to a room in the castle she didn’t know to exist, where she meets a woman she understands to be a distant ancestor.
This grandmother figure, also played by Katherine MacGregor, advises the young princess to follow the pull of an invisible string she will feel in her finger – this as a means of finding her way through her fears and doubts.
“Understanding comes later,” the grandmother says. “For now, just obey me in this.”
And so the young princess obeys. Through following the pull of the invisible string, she is drawn to her friend Curdie, played by Robin Lottes, the child of a mining family from the mountains who has been trapped by the goblins underground.
Allies, the two join forces and together they follow the string back to the castle. Curdie just barely survives a near-death battle with a goblin. Princess Irene finally returns to the room where she first met the grandmother, only to find the room abandoned, as though it had sat empty for an eternity, leaving her wondering whether any of it – the string, her grandmother – had ever been real.
“It’s about faith, it’s about grace . . . the importance of obedience before understanding, and believing without seeing,” Graham said. “That’s probably the biggest one right there.”
The unofficial theatre troupe, formed of both veteran Community Players as well as new recruits, began rehearsals for the radio production when the script, written by Graham, and the score, written by Matt Lottes, were finalized in October.
Actor Katherine MacGregor and her husband Matt Rioux, who played a guard and the goblin prince, were two of the new recruits who embraced the stage over the weekend.
“She’s absolutely like a God-like entity,” MacGregor said following her performance as the grandmother.
“She sees everything, she knows everything, and she chooses very selectively when she wants to intervene, to sort of sculpt people’s lives.”
She said she felt the string metaphor provided “a nice analogy of bringing people together and creating social connections you don’t necessarily know you have until there’s an opportunity to share something.”
“You have that dynamic of the princess and the villagers who end up really coming together and leveraging that thread that grandmother has given them to overcome adversity,” MacGregor said.
Sunday evening’s show was the last of three put on by the group, following performances at the Quyon United Church on Friday evening, and at the Shawville United Church on Saturday evening, as well as a performance for radio with no audience, which will be broadcasted on Valley Heritage Radio on or near Christmas Day.
This format, Graham said, allows the story to reach audiences in the comfort of their homes, which is not possible through the more conventional stage-based theatrical productions.
“We’re just putting on a show and letting people’s imaginations take them along for the ride.”
