Two nerds get overly excited about the 3-D Avengers movie they are about to see, a movie containing a made-up character known as The Bull, as is evident by all of the horns, during the Prairieland Players presentation of a play titled Meet Me at the Lux on April 27 at the Prairieland Community Centre.

Kenneth Brown
of The Crossroads

There was plenty of laughter abound in Kerrobert last weekend when the Prairieland Players presented an original play to audiences on three nights.

The theatre group presented a comedy titled Meet Me at the Lux to crowds from April 26-28 at the Prairieland Community Centre (PCC). The shows on Friday and Saturday nights included supper and the show on Thursday featured the performance and a light snack.

Food for the performances was prepared or provided by the Kerrobert Kinettes and the Kerrobert Seniors Club, and the Kerrobert Kinsmen helped by running a bar.

The shows also included prizes in a raffle draw and an opportunity to win cash from a 50/50 draw. The 50/50 winner won $330 on Friday.

Anita Phillips, the host for the performance on Friday, welcome people to the 29th production by the Prairieland Players. She said the theatre group has raised $138,000 for the PCC in its history and for the past couple of years including 2018, proceeds are supporting upgrades at the swimming pool. Phillips said the Lux was a movie theatre in Kerrobert and the play was sure to keep people laughing.

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The play took place in the Lux Theatre and the story revolved around three nerds that decide to leave their homes to see a movie at the Lux. The movie is an Avengers movie featuring a new character called The Bull. After a tasty chicken and roast beef supper, the play began.

Director Shauna Meek said members of the theatre group collaborated to write the play and it included a fair bit of improvisation comedy. There was no way to tell what was improised or scripted, a testament to the abilities of the actors.

Cast members even used their own names for the play. The audience is first introduced to Rachael (Rachael Johnson) and Monika (Monika Knorr), who are employed at the Lux. Rachael asks Monika why she is even there because she is pregnant and one person could handle the job. Monika says she needs the money and The Avengers is a popular series, so the theatre might be busier than normal.

The theatre’s owner is an unruly man named Fred (Fred Arnott). The owner makes a great first impression with the audience when he tells the staff to get busy and to stop eating all of the profits. Rachael asks if they should get busy because of all the patrons, of which there are none, and Fred says he runs the show and gives the orders.

Patrons start to arrive and before they even say a word, two of the patrons draw a chuckle from the audience. Chad (Chad Tetzlaff) enters wearing the front half of a bull costume and, though they don’t find each other at first, Paul (Paul Bricker) is wearing the back half of the costume.

After giving each other grief for taking too long to find each other, Chad says the costume only makes sense if they are together. Paul soon asks why he always has to get the short end of the deal when he and Chad do tandem costumes.

The friends start talking about their third wheel John (John Schan), who is always late. Chad tells Paul about all the costumes John has in the trunk of his car, and how he believes he uses the costumes to entertain at children’s parties. Chad mentions a giant pickle costume, which sparks some confusion and laughter from audience members.

There are four other patrons that frequent Avengers movies at the Lux. Each act of the two-act play features its own movie. The other patrons are Virginia (Virginia Charteris), Vanessa (Vanessa Schan), Spencer (Spencer Williams) and Jaime (Jaime Frydenlund).

Virginia and Vanessa are friends while Spencer and Jaime are friends or more for the purpose of the play. The patrons go back and forth between the theatre and lobby to buy snacks, and Chad and Paul often argue about sharing snacks.

Fred, the owner, gives his staff more grief about making fun of the customers, a problem with the two nerds, being more polite and saying thank you after every purchase. Rachael tests Fred’s patience by asking him why he has been on them all night, so Fred, who Monika says is on day one of trying to quit smoking again, fires Rachael.

Monika suggests to Fred, who she then refers to as dad, that breakfast is going to be awkward in the morning. Rachael is also Fred’s daughter and, no too long afterwards, Fred’s angry wife Sandra (Sandra Smith) demands he hire her back immediately.

The audience gets a kick out of Fred’s temper tantrums. That’s about the time John enters the theatre wearing a Batman costume. All three of the nerds use inhalers and after John uses his inhaler, the lights dim, Monika freezes in time and John dances in a fantasy dream sequence.

Chad and Paul also experience fantasy dream sequences when they use the inhalers John gave them. The dance sequences were a big hit with the audience. Chad panics more often than Paul, but they both use their inhalers often enough.

They later give John grief because the inhalers are expired by 10 years and, although they do help, they are just oxygen. The three friends do all of the things that drive people crazy at a movie theatre, and Chad and Paul even end up flossing during the movie. John, who is already on the theatre’s banned board, keeps getting kicked out by Fred and he keeps returning in different costumes.

Several of the funnier moments in the play are directly related to John’s costumes. Chad and Paul freak out because John wears DC Comics characters costumes as Batman and Superman when the Avengers is by Marvel Comics. John shows up as Zorro and after his friends claim Zorro is not a superhero, John says he is a superhero to Mexicans.

All of the other patrons leave the first movie early because they are annoyed by Chad and Paul. Spencer and Jaime go to leave for the same reason during the second movie, but Spencer is having none of it. He gets up to leave with her, but he turns around and sneaks back to his seat.

The second movie was a 3-D Avengers movie and highlights of the second act included Paul and Chad showing up in the same costume, and John showing up even later than normal in a Woody costume from Toy Story.

The play ends with Fred having a heart to heart with John about selling the theatre, so he leaves John, the potential buyer, in charge while he goes to the hospital where his pregnant daughter is about to give birth.

The cast kept the audience laughing with its antics and Tetzlaff pulled off a great nerd character.

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