Murder, mystery leads to intimate tourist attraction

Elaborate sets, auditoriums, and huge casts might not be necessary to produce great theatre that performs as a regional draw. Take a story based on local history, throw in an attractive cast, perform parts in different locations around town, and you have an affordable new tourist attraction.

At least that's what the Annapolis Heritage Society is finding with its already sold-out premiere weekend of 5 Stab Wounds in the Governor.

"What it's trying to do is get the history of the town out of the museum and out onto the streets," said Society member and O'Dell House Museum curator, Ryan Scranton. "We're trying to popularize the history of the community (and) let people know what's going on. There's a lot of stories we have to tell and not all of them are being told."

The Society is presenting its collaboration with local restaurant and bed and breakfast owners over the weekend of Oct. 12 through 14. 5 Stab Wounds in the Governor is performed as five 30-minute episodes, with each episode at a different venue. The $40 ticket includes a bite to eat at each stop, and ends with a trial at Annapolis Provincial Court, the oldest operating courthouse in Nova Scotia.

Director and playwright Kent Thompson said the play is a fact-based historical accounting of the "amazing death" of Annapolis Royal's Lt. Col. Lawrence Armstrong. Found deceased in 1739, "suicide in a fit of lunacy" was the official cause of death - except he had five stab wounds in his chest.

"It's clear there was a cover-up in 1739," said Thompson in an interview. "Armstrong was not a popular man. There were at least five suspects who could have killed him, there are others who were glad to hear he was dead, and a whole lot more people who were just applauding."

Thompson said he had done this type of street theatre before, and that experience taught him the cast needed to be small so for this play he enlisted Brenda Keen, Brenda Thompson, and Madeline Akin-Carhartt to play the primary roles of three squabbling sisters.

"The middle daughter is married to the other Lt. Governor, Alexander Cosby, who has his power because his sister is married to the governor who's back in Europe. The other two women are married to men who are executors of Armstrong's estate," said Thompson. "The women are all involved, everyone in Annapolis Royal was involved, and in the cover-up - they were all involved too."

Scranton said the idea for the play grew from research Thompson had been doing on another book. He said they had chatted about Thompson's King's Landing experience and thought this twist on street theatre would be a perfect way to tell this type of story.

"There's a plethora of mystery-type stories that could be dramatized," said Scranton. "As we were looking through the history of Annapolis, this one jumped out as a story that could really be dramatized quite well. A lot of big figures, key transitional moments in the history of the province, and a potential murder mystery."

But to perform any result, on a tight budget, required some ingenuity. With one society member experienced in producing plays that spread over weekends, and Thompson's experience with street theatre, they combined their knowledge and engaged local tourism businesses as hosts. In fact, many of the locations were homes around the time of the murder - or suicide.

"We wanted to advertise the venues for one thing, for the tourist attraction," said Thompson. "We also do this intimate theatre because it's comparatively cheap and we use the houses because we have the audience close. Now we're feeding all of the audiences as well, because that's half of the fun."

Although a complete sell-out is the dream of every producer, Scranton said the response to this production already has the Society looking ahead to the future - and with business sponsorships, promotion, and other community involvement, it's a model of successful theatre that might be transported easily to other regions.



PRIME SUSPECT

Lawrence Armstrong had a falling out with one of his servants, Robin Nicholas when they were up at Canso. The records show Nicholas struck Armstrong, but Armstrong waited until they were back in Annapolis Royal months later before exacting his revenge.

He punished Nicholas by putting him on the gallows with a sign reading "audacious villain" around his neck. When he was done with that, Armstrong had him tied to an ox cart and he was walked up to the Cape Road and back, receiving five lashes every hundred paces.

By the time Nicholas finished the journey, there was not much of him left.

Much to everyone's surprise, he survived the brutal punishment, which might have developed into a really good motive for wanting Armstrong dead.

Source: Kent Thompson