Blyth Festival tells the Doc Cruickshank story with 'Radio Town' to close season
BY SCOTT STEPHENSON
The Blyth Festival’s world premiere of Nathan Howe’s Radio Town: The Doc Cruickshank Story opened last week to a positively rowdy response from an enthusiastic audience. Now, normally, it’s not optimal when members of the audience talk throughout the performance, but Radio Town is one of those rare occasions when it just works, somehow.
People were just so excited to see a story so close to home told with such energetic panache that they couldn’t help but comment on seeing so many familiar faces brought to life on stage. Outbursts like “Oh, he was my next door neighbour!” and “I remember her from church!” were all part of the fun.
And fun is something that Radio Town definitely is. The first act practically dances off the boards, and all the musical performances were top notch. Radio Town is a show that shines brightest when it leans into its playful, tuneful energy.
The evening begins with youthful swagger, carried largely on the shoulders of Landon Doak, who plays the young Doc Cruickshank with easy charm and a magnetic energy. Doak’s performance is pitch-perfect: their voice is strong, and their interpretation of Cruickshank’s energetic optimism helps lift the whole first act into something joyous. Doak is well-matched by Shelayna Christante, who plays Cruickshank’s wife, Mabel, with warmth and conviction. Christante brings a quiet strength to her role, balancing tenderness with resilience, and her exchanges with Doak are some of the evening’s most memorable moments.
Many of the evening’s other memorable moments belong to actor George Meanwell, who, in a feat of theatrical agility, plays seemingly everyone else interesting who ever passed through Wingham. Whether slipping into the skin of an early investor, a well-meaning Winghamite or a local music legend, Meanwell’s transformations are fluid, funny and wonderfully human. His multi-instrumental prowess adds even more texture to the show’s musical backbone, and it’s no exaggeration to say that every scene Meanwell touches is made stronger by his presence. The Citizen won’t spoil which characters he plays, because half the fun is finding out.
Early on, Masae Day’s yodelling was a real moment, and Blyth Festival-favourite Michelle Fisk brought pathos, charm and genuine class to every character she played.
Director J.D. Nicholsen uses minimal sets and great staging ideas to move the first act with a sense of fun and speed that matches the punchy script of author Howe. The songs are tuneful, the humour is sharp, and the pacing has a buoyancy that keeps the story driving forward. If the whole production maintained that spirit, Radio Town would be an unqualified triumph.
But as the curtain rises on the second act, and World War II, the show takes a turn, energy-wise, largely due to the decision to prematurely switch out Doak’s ‘young’ Doc in favour of the ‘old’ Doc portrayed by Festival Artistic Director Gil Garratt. While Garratt’s Citizen Kane-inspired take on Cruickshank works just fine at the beginning of the play, as an old man looking back on his life, it is a bit jarring to see our young, spry inventor age so much in just a few short years.
The combination of Nicholsen’s sharp direction and Howe’s snappy, sitcom-inspired writing style is so sure of itself in the first half of Radio Town that it feels like these actors have been doing this show together for years, but it stumbles in the second half against a protagonist who seems to have had the wind knocked out of him, permanently. It feels, perhaps, too reminiscent of Citizen Kane. Where the first act hums with music, romance and the thrill of possibility, the second act sometimes sinks into reflection too quickly, leaving the audience longing to linger longer with the young dreamers in which they had just invested.
One other tiny distraction comes from Geoffrey Armour’s contributions. Armour is undeniably talented, his energy on stage is infectious, and his character work is excellent. Yet the particular style of haircut he’s currently sporting is so specific that it unintentionally muddles the clarity of his multiple roles. A number of audience members were heard whispering, trying to discern which character he was meant to be in a given moment - an oversight that could easily be corrected.
Still, for all its second half unevenness, Radio Town remains a worthwhile addition to the Blyth Festival’s season. The music alone is worth the price of admission, and the skilled ensemble cast ensures the show has more than its share of delights. Even with its structural stumbles, the play captures something essential about the ambition, hope, and grit that fuelled Doc Cruickshank’s remarkable life.
In the end, Radio Town may not quite live up to the brilliance of its first act, but it still leaves its audience humming.