This week, Live Bait Theatre debuts a new play written and directed by Sackville’s Andrew Ennals. Shivers: Three Supernatural Tales from Tantramar is playing at the Performers Theatre Studio on Fairfield Road from Thursday to Saturday, and at the CCUBIC theatre in Amherst on Wednesday.
Ennals dropped by CHMA studios to talk about the production:
When Ennals was young, he can recall being captivated by the “wonderfully spooky” look of Sackville during Halloween. “That setting of the Tantramar marsh, the Fundy fog rolling in, and just all these big spooky Victorian houses downtown,” says Ennals. “When I was a kid growing up here, and especially at Halloween, that was such a picture perfect version of what that that night felt like.”
And now the grown-up Ennals is bringing some of that spookiness to the stage, with a play he wrote featuring three stories designed to send shivers up spines.
“They’re ghost stories and they’re creative stories at the same time,” says Ennals. One of the tales is based on his own experience in the old Middle Sackville school house in the late 90s. Another features the ‘phantom fiddler of Frosty Hollow’ because with a name like Frosty Hollow, “you’re already starting from an advantage, as a writer”. And the third tells of the marsh witch, bringing in parts of the legend from Amherst and Tantramar regions.
Ennals has a background with Live Bait Theatre, having taken on roles during his high school days. After returning to Sackville last year, he started acting again, and rediscovered the joy of live performance.
Shivers: Supernatural Tales of Tantramar is on at the Performers Theatre Company studio space located at “Sackville’s spookiest intersection,” Fairfield and Queens Road. More show and ticket information is at livebaittheatre.com