2023 Summer Season Summary
Welcome home.
In the summer of 2022, The Hamilton Spectator boldly proclaimed the Lighthouse Festival as “The home of Canadian theatre comedies.” Well, friends, it’s time to welcome you back home to another summer of laughter in our beautiful lakeside towns.
The 2023 season will feature a playbill that highlights what Lighthouse Festival does best: Canadian comedies. Five stories by Canadians, about Canadians, and for Canadians.
We’ll take you to northern New Brunswick to watch an isolated woodsman reconnect with his family in the city, then watch as a diverse, rag-tag group of amateur broadcasters embrace chaos to save their radio station. You’ll meet a sweet couple who move from the big city to a small town to open a Bed & Breakfast and encounter a myriad of challenges, before watching a peaceful retirement turned hectic family reunion on Manitoulin Island. The season wraps up with a special delight: an unrelenting comedy, and a world premiere from Canada’s most celebrated playwright, Norm Foster.
Two world premieres, two Norm Foster comedies, and one summer of some of the finest live theatre in the Country. Mark the calendar, we can’t wait to welcome you back to the Canadian sense of humour.
2023 Summer Season
Shows & Dates
Come Down From Up River
Port Dover, May 17 – June 3, 2023
Port Colborne June 7 – 18, 2023
WRITTEN BY NORM FOSTER
Shaver Bennett lives in the woods in northern New Brunswick, where he has kept to himself for most of his life. And then one day, he arrives at the door of his estranged sister’s daughter, Bonnie, whom he hasn’t seen in 20 years. Bonnie and her wife Liv, welcome Shaver into their lives in this sweetly moving, fish-out-of-water tale.
On The Air
WORLD PREMIERE
Port Dover June 7 – 24, 2023
Port Colborne June 28 – July 9, 2023
WRITTEN BY EPHRAIM ELLIS
The small-town radio station of Lake Kashagakaganee has only one problem. No one’s listening. Watch as Alice, the new station manager, tries to rally her rag-tag group of amateur broadcasters to find a new audience. At the same time navigate the return of Matt the former station manager’s son who has a plan to change everything.
Bed & Breakfast
Port Dover June 28 – July 15, 2023
Port Colborne July 19 – 30, 2023
WRITTEN BY MARK CRAWFORD
Brett and Drew want to move out of their tiny downtown condo, trying their luck with the Toronto real estate market until Brett inherits his beloved Aunt’s historic family home in a quaint tourist town. The guys decide to take the plunge moving to the countryside to open a B&B. Over the course of their first year, they face friction in their new community with more than a few unexpected and hilarious plot-twists as they try to find a place to call home.
Where You Are
Port Dover July 19 – August 5, 2023
Port Colborne August 9 – 20, 2023
WRITTEN BY KRISTEN DA SILVA
Sisters Glenda and Suzanne live a quiet retirement selling homemade jam on Manitoulin Island. This summer, their usual concerns – trying to orchestrate sightings of their handsome veterinarian neighbour and preparing for the visit of Suzanne’s grown daughter, Beth – are complicated by a secret the sisters can no longer contain. When Beth arrives with some secrets of her own, the three women face things that will change their lives forever.
A Pack Of Thieves
WORLD PREMEIRE
Port Dover August 16 – September 2, 2023
Port Colborne September 6 – 17, 2023
WRITTEN BY NORM FOSTER
Robert and Jeff are middle-class suburbanites who figure they can use a little extra cash to improve their troubled lives. No problem. They devise a plan whereby they will steal a thoroughbred racehorse and hold it for ransom. They enlist the aid of Padre, an experienced criminal, and a pair of bumbling twins named Elton and Nigel. What can go wrong? Just about everything in A Pack Of Thieves.
SEASON TOPPER
Opry Gold with The Wayward Wind Band
Port Dover September 5 – 16, 2023
Port Colborne September 20 – 24, 2023
CREATED BY LEISA WAY
To share the Opry’s history is to share the story of Country Music. Leisa Way and her phenomenally talented Wayward Wind Band raise the roof with the hottest country songs from the last few decades. Sing-a-long to Johnny Cash, Shania Twain, Vince Gill, Loretta Lynn, Patsy Cline, Lady A, Kenny Rogers, Dolly Parton, Tammy Wynette, George Jones, Garth Brooks, Tim McGraw, Faith Hill, Hank Williams, Glen Campbell, Taylor Swift, Gretchen Wilson, Flatt & Scruggs, Ricky Scaggs, Hank Snow, and more!
Meet Brian Fettes
Brian is the local artist selected to created the show graphics for our 2023 summer season. Featuring the show graphic artist is just another way for Lighthouse to share all the talented people who go into creating a season of summer theatre.
Season Presenters
Production Presenters