ALEX MCCUAIG | MEDICINE HAT NEWS
A documentary play based on the 2006 triple murder of a Medicine Hat family will be coming to the city this month.
Tickets are now on sale for "Castles in the Sky" which made its theatrical debut at a playwright festival held last month in Calgary and will be coming to the Esplanade Theatre on July 23.
The play is based on verbatim interviews with those close to the murders which saw the country's youngest multi-murderer convicted of crimes committed when she was only 12 years old.
Playwright Francesca Albright said staging the play in Medicine Hat has always been the goal of the production.
"It was always our intention," said Albright in a phone interview from her home in Victoria. "The Calgary shows were awesome... People responded well to what is a pretty intense show."
But staging the show on what for many in Medicine Hat is still a sensitive topic did come with challenges, said Albright.
While the actors may have worked out their butterflies during the Calgary debut of the play, Albright says she is nervous about bringing the show to Medicine Hat.
"I've always said to by brother (cowriter Jude Thaddeus Allen) this is the most important production we'll do," said Albright.
"This play is for Medicine Hat - it's your play. The reaction of the people we interviewed and have been part of it are more important to me than any reviewers' comments."
She added she hopes the play becomes part of the healing process because "it was our intention the whole time to put people in a room and talk."
Most of the same cast and crew from the recent production will be returning for the Esplanade show. The timing of the play comes about a month prior to the next sentence review of the teenaged girl convicted of the triple murder along with her then-boyfriend Jeremy Steinke.
The sentence review could see the girl return to Medicine Hat prior to being granted more open release conditions, possibly to attend university. Tickets are now on sale at the Esplanade box office or through tixx.ca.
Tickets are $15 for the one-show-only performance on July 23 with doors opening at 7 p.m.