The King’s Town Players: A Celebration of Comedy and Community
By: Malobi Elueme
Five years ago, in the height of the Coronavirus pandemic, the King’s Town Players closed their doors. There was no send-off, no emotional goodbyes or one last show due to the pandemic. The past weekend, the King’s Town Players celebrated their 10-season anniversary in bold and hilarious fashion: with a brand new production presented by Scurra Sacra. The Complete Works of the King’s Town Players (abridged) is a playful reworking of their past material with a lot of comedy and an impressive amount of self-awareness. I went in thinking the show would be mostly for long-time fans, but I couldn’t have been more wrong. The Players make sure newcomers like me are included every step of the way.
From the very start, the actors bring unrelenting energy to their roles. The comedy is physical, loud, and full of surprises: funny faces, screams from across the hall, a talking apartment, a sassy husband, and even a game of bingo. At times it did not feel like a performance at all. It felt more like a joyful gathering where the audience and cast bonded together.
The performers aren’t afraid to poke fun at themselves. They have been doing this for a long time and have seen their industry come to terms with itself. Hilarious commentary on casting practices then vs now and the physical aches of audience demands landed easily. Lines like, “This is just elder abuse,” or, “If you want a vanilla latte, someone’s gotta milk the cow,” drew roars of laughter.
Highlights include Stephen Spencer, who is magnetic in everything he does, and Michael Gourgon, the mastermind behind the sound design. His perfectly timed effects were some of the funniest I’ve seen on stage. Even the set itself became part of the comedy. The doorways and spinning panels moved the stories seamlessly from one scene to the next.
Yes, one scene ran a touch too long and a cast member’s lines were occasionally hard to hear from the back, but those were small bumps in an otherwise outstanding evening. Audience members summed it up best: one called the show “f—ing ridiculous”* (in the best way), while another said, “I might need to come back and see this again.”
The King’s Town Players lean heavily into audience energy, and it pays off. Their comedy is big, and unashamedly silly (this was definitely my first time watching two grown men wear one pair of trousers), yet it’s paired with an earnestness that makes you feel part of the joke rather than just watching from a seat.
With curly blond wigs, talking apartments, and even a rogue NSFW prop, the show packed a lot in, but it never lost its heart. It was a true celebration of everything the King’s Town Players stand for: community, laughter, and fearless creativity.
If you’re looking for a night out where you’ll laugh until your face hurts, this is definitely a show to catch.
Interested in reading about the behind-the-scenes scoop on the show? Check out Michaela’s feature on Clayton Garrett, co-creator of the show, below!
Return of the Sacred Fool: Clayton Garrett on ‘The Complete Works of the King’s Town Players (abridged)’
By: Michaela Tassone
Nearly five years after King’s Town Players was forced to close their doors, past company members came together to celebrate comedy, theatre, and the legacy of a beloved community theatre company. The Complete Works of the King’s Town Players (abridged) is an original production combining elements of each King’s Town Players show, presented by newfound company Scurra Sacra. The tribute production has been created by former board members, one of whom is Clayton Garrett, a founding member of the King’s Town Players. I recently had the opportunity to speak with Garrett about the collaborative rehearsal process, social media’s role as promotion and backstory for the show, and the importance of comedy.
This interview has been edited for length and clarity.
What is The Complete Works of the King’s Town Players?
The King’s Town Players had to close its doors in 2020 because of COVID—it was moving along, basically doing show after show, but it couldn’t afford a long closure. We were a little sad that it kind of just unceremoniously went off in the middle of the night. So we got thinking, why don’t we do one big Irish funeral kind of thing for it and have a last sort of run?
And so we started to bounce ideas around and stuff like that, about what that show would be and what we would do. The very first show we did with King’s Town Players was a show called The Complete Works of William Shakespeare (abridged). We thought as an homage to that, we would do a Complete Works of the King’s Town Players (abridged).
So, we have all 44 past shows in a one night, irreverent sort of manner.
I noticed you have posted a few comedic videos to YouTube advertising the run of the show—I’d love to hear more about where these ideas came from and how they tie into the show?
[With] King’s Town Players we had this idea years ago when we first started it to use social media as a way to make these promos for the plays we were doing… We found that long after the shows had been put away and all the sets had been struck, that the promotional videos kind of had a life of their own on the internet.
So with this venture through Scurra Sacra, the production company we’re doing this through, the idea was to do these promotional videos again to hype the show—but let’s tell more story. The content in videos we’re doing ties directly into the show… They give a backstory to some of the actors who are showing up in the show.
Given that everyone has their own backstory built out via social media and the show is a mixture of parts from all the previous King’s Town Players shows, how are these both coming together to create a story for the show?
A lot of it is art imitating life—their backstories started as we put the script together and came up with some of the jokes in the show.
For instance, a very good example… basically comes from a line I had written in the script where [an actor] talks about back when he was in theatre school. As he was reading, he was like “I never went to theatre school.” I said, “I know, but you’re acting. Just say the line.” We all laughed at that, and decided we were going to retcon that joke by doing this whole social media thing. It’s very, very, very funny in a humiliating sort of way.
Obviously we’re not doing 44 shows, but we’re trying to come up with inventive ways to mash them together or kick them off the list. One batch of shows we’ve incorporated together and they’re going to be a pantomime, another batch are sandwiched together and they’re going to be a Commedia dell’arte. We’re doing all these different kinds of theatre styles with what we’re doing, in a sort of frantic way.
Playing into those genres seems like an amazing way to pay tribute to styles throughout theatre history and the King’s Town Players at once—was that common with past seasons of the company?
One of the approaches that we did with picking our seasons back in the day was we would put it out there to directors and say, “Hey, bring us what you’re interested in directing.” We’d have some submissions and pick from what would fit from there, so it was very eclectic. We always tried to make sure there was at least one Canadian play once a year, and we’d do a Christmas show because we found early on that it was nice for families. But most of the rest of the seasons were a pot luck of shows.
As this show is a collaboration between many past board members of the King’s Town Players, how has that changed the environment of the rehearsal room?
We have been collaboratively directing. We are having some guest directors coming and sitting in for us because eventually, it doesn’t matter how funny it is, the show stops being funny to us at some point, so you need some fresh people to come in…
That being said, I do have to say we have been very careful not to just turn this into some kind of show that you “had to be there” to appreciate; we want to show that even for folks who weren’t familiar with the King’s Town Players and maybe never even had the chance to go see other shows, could still sit down and have a great evening and lots of laughs.
What is Scurra Sacra’s goal for this production and potential projects in the future?
I think this is to get our feet wet again and see where this takes us. I’m having a lot of fun blending the online content with the live theatre. That’s something maybe worth looking at down the road.
Scurra Sacra translates to “sacred fool” in Latin; it’s somebody who sees things backwards and in a funny way, finds humour in things that change moods. My wife and I were puzzling over what we were going to put together here, and I just thought of that image, of a comedian that can make people laugh when a lot of people want to be angry. Right now, I feel like comedy is something we need more of.
Clayton Garrett is an actor, writer, director, and producer based in Kingston, having worked locally since the early 2000s with Rogue and Peasant Theatre, In The Dark, Domino, Bottletree, and Theatre Kingston. He was a founding member of the King’s Town Players and spent six years as a board member and producer for the company.
‘The Complete Works of the King’s Town Players (abridged)’ played at the Baby Grand Theatre from September 24th – 27th, 2025. More information can be found here.
