CHRIS LOWREY
SHAWVILLE Sept. 12, 2018
The Stone Fence Theatre will showcase its latest play, I Come From the Valley! Tales and Times of Joan Finnigan, will come to Dr. S.E. McDowell Elementary later this month.
Finnigan was an award-winning author who spent much of her time as a girl in Shawville.
The play was written by the company’s producer, Ish Theilheimer, as a tribute to someone he respected deeply.
“She was a master writer,” Theilheimer said. “A giant of a person.”
Although Finnigan was raised in Ottawa, both of her parents – local hockey legend Frank Finnigan and Maye Horner Finnigan – were born and raised in Shawville. She considered the town a second home of sorts when she was a youngster.
Theilheimer said one of the most impressive aspects of Finnigan as a subject is her risk-taking nature.

“The fact that, after her husband died and left her with three kids to raise in the 1960s, she decided – instead of doing the sensible thing and becoming a teacher – to become a writer,” Theilheimer said. “That’s not an easy decision to make.”
Although she did spend time as a teacher and a reporter for the Ottawa Journal, she eventually passed on the safe option and instead opted to pursue her passion.
“Her family thought she was crazy,” Theilheimer said. “And then a couple of years later she wrote the script for the film of the year.”
Finnigan started her writing career off with a bang when she wrote the script for the 1968 film The Best Damn Fiddler from Calabogie to Kaladar.
The film starred Margot Kidder and won Finnigan the 1969 Genie award for Best Screenplay, in addition to the Canadian Film Award for Film of the Year.
Having authored more than 30 books during her stellar career, Finnigan sits at the top of the region’s literary food chain. In fact, award winning author and former Ottawa Citizen reporter Roy MacGregor is counted among her fans.
“The story, tales and music of Joan Finnigan, and old friend, is the essence of the Valley itself,” MacGregor said in a press release for the play.
Theilheimer spent time with Finnigan and was in awe of her personality.
“I got to know Joan a little bit,” he said. “She was a very strong, independent-thinking person who didn’t mind saying what was on her mind.”
Finnigan died in 2007 at the age of 81, but she left behind a trove of material at her alma mater, Queen’s University.
“I learned far more by going to her archives than I might have ever known about Joan,” Theilheimer said. “People tell me that they’re learning things about Joan that they had no idea about.”
The play itself focuses significantly on Joan’s time in Shawville, with a few stories featuring her famous father.
“It deals a lot with her history in the Shawville area and her father, Frank Finnigan, the hockey superstar,” Theilheimer said. “[It looks at] his upbringing and her great uncle Ralph Horner who was a famous fundamentalist minister.”
The play tries to encapsulate the ups and downs of being a female author who writes about her own community.
“She had quite a difficult life and overcame enormous obstacles,” Theilheimer said. “Joan was a very controversial person.”
She created controversy with the script she wrote for The Best Damn Fiddler from Calabogie to Kaladar because many people from the region felt it was disparaging.
“Local people in the Valley didn’t like it at all,” Theilheimer said. “This play really discusses those controversies and gives both sides of several of them.”
Theilheimer said it’s a difficult task for an author to write about a place to which they are connected.
“It’s never easy to be an artist in the community because an artist is compelled to portray truth, or the truth as he or she sees it,” Theilheimer said. “And people don’t always agree with that.”
Ultimately, Theilheimer said he wants to make sure Finnigan’s name gets the recognition it deserves.
“I want to revive her memory,” he said. “I want people to get interested and look for her books and start reading and discussing them.”
The performance is on Sept. 29 at 7 p.m.