4th Line Theatre – Robert Winslow’s Welcome Death

reviewed by Paula Citron
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Welcome Death
4th Line Theatre
Written and directed by Robert Winslow
Starring Robert Winslow, Rachel Brittain, Paul O’Sullivan , Tracy Rankin, Brandon Coffey, and Wyatt Lamoureux
At the Meadow Theatre, Winslow Farm, Millbrook, Ontario until Aug. 29
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The outdoor 4th Line Theatre mounts original Canadian plays in natural light with roots in the Peterborough/Cobourg area. Robert Winslow serves as playwright, director and lead actor in the entertaining Welcome Death.

Winslow, who portrays an obsessed coroner, was inspired by the unsolved murder of young wife Elizabeth Deyell in the 1860s. Welcome Death is a whodunit melodrama in the grand tradition, where lots of suspects abound.

4th Line puts together its large casts by combining equity actors, recent drama school graduates and experienced community theatre enthusiasts. While the acting level may be uneven, what makes 4th Line such a wonderful theatrical experience is how they use outdoor sites. In the case of Welcome Death, the playing area is a meadow and hillside, and the staging is a very sophisticated flow of up hill and down dale, gilded by Angela Thomas’ period costumes.

Every 4th Line play is an visual adventure.

Welcome Death continues at 4th Line Theatre near Millbrook, Ontario until Aug. 29.