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White Rock’s Peninsula Productions readies protocol-friendly production

‘Private Peaceful’ to take the stage on Nov. 1
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Anthony Goncharov, who stars in Peninsula Productions’ Private Peaceful on Nov. 1, as he appeared in the company’s Sea of Stories in 2017. (Beverly Malcom photo)

White Rock’s Peninsula Productions is forging ahead with another limited-audience staged reading to comply with pandemic protocols.

On Sunday, Nov. 1, Private Peaceful, Simon Reade’s one-character adaptation of Michael Morpurgo’s book, will be presented to limited physically-distanced audiences in a 2:30 p.m. matinee and a 7 p.m. evening performance at the company’s black box theatre at Centennial Park.

Starring Anthony Goncharov, it tells the story of young soldier Thomas ‘Tommo’ Peaceful, who looks back on his childhood while mired in the battlefields of the First World War.

His memories resonate with a family life lived deep in the countryside, but as a media release notes, “the clock is ticking, and every moment that Tommo spends remembering how things used to be, means another moment closer to something that will change his life forever.”

A Sept. 27 staged reading of Mark Leiren-Young’s one-character play Shylock, starring Warren Kimmel ran, “very smoothly,” Peninsula executive director Janet Ellis said.

“We had a limited audience and all Covid protocols in place – it was so wonderful to see and hear an audience back in our space.”

She added that Peninsula Productions is delighted to welcome back Guy Fauchon, who has staged many of the company’s previous pre-Covid play readings.

Goncharov is also no stranger to the company – audiences will remember him from the hit original musical Sea of Stories, in which he played a young boy struggling to fit into his new home in White Rock.

The theatre space is adjacent to Centennial Arena in the park, at 14600 North Bluff Rd.

Tickets ($25) are available online from info@peninsulaproductions.org