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All aboard for Hudson Village Theatre
Off-island playhouse offers special excursion train to bring patrons out for a show
Alycia Ambroziak
The Gazette
Thursday, June 11, 2009
Photo by Shane Kelley, courtesy of Hudson Village Theatre
The Hudson Village Theatre has lined up two trains this summer to allow Montrealers and West Island residents to take in a couple of plays – and tour the village, its shops and centres and even take a shuttle bus from the well-known Willow’s Inn to well-known Finnegan’s Market – without the hassle of using a car.
“We rented one train for the first time last year and it worked so well, we decided to do it again, only twice,” Carolyne Flower, the theatre’s director of marketing and promotion, said last week. “And besides taking in a play, there will be lots of things for people to do.”
The town of Hudson has set up a shuttle bus on train days that will take people from the east end of the village at Willow Place Inn, with many stops along the way, including the Greenwood Living History Museum, the community centre for nature trail walks, a stop in the heart of the village as well as what is becoming known as the west-end shops and out to Finnegan’s Market.
The first train excursion takes place June 20, for the opening weekend, featuring the play Old Love by Norm Foster.
The second excursion will be Aug. 1, featuring the play Quartet by Ronald Harwood, author of films including The Dresser, The Piano and The Diving Bell and the Butterfly. Aug. 1 also happens to be Hudson’s street fair and music fest day.
The $50 cost includes tickets to the show, the train ride with free nibbles and beverage, discount coupons for participating restaurants and merchants, and on-board entertainment by the Denny’s Dixieland Clan, which performed last year on the train.
Passengers from Montreal will leave the Lucien l’Allier train station at 12:30 p.m. The train will have one stop in Beaconsfield at (12:50 p.m. and arrive in Hudson at 1:30 p.m. with 300 theatre fans who will take in the 2 or 6 p.m. performance and tour the village before leaving Hudson at 8 p.m., with an 8:40 p.m. stop in Beaconsfield and back downtown by 9 p.m.
For tickets to the train excursion, call the Agence Metropolitain de Transport at 514-287-7866.
The Hudson Village Theatre is at 28 Wharf Rd., Hudson. 450-458-5361, or visit www.villagetheatre.ca
This summer’s Hudson Village Theatre Lineup:
June 18 to July 5: Old Love, by Norm Foster.
Billed as a re-awakening of forgotten emotions, romance and courtship, a newly widowed woman reconnects with a former acquaintance who happens to be recently divorced.
July 8 to 12: Wingfield Unbound, by Dan Needles.
Actor Rod Beattie plays Walt Wingfield, a newly married farmer trying to preserve a rural mill that many feel is haunted.
July 16 to Aug. 2: Quartet, by Ronald Harwood.
Billed as a bittersweet comedy, four retired opera singers go back to singing only once each year to celebrate a friend’s birthday.
July 19: a concert by BluesVille Express, featuring original song with blues classics, swing, funk, jump and rock.
Aug. 6 to 23: Having Hope at Home, by David S. Craig.
A comedy about an expectant mother who wants to bring her family together before her first child is born.
Aug. 26 to 30: The Dik & Mitzi Anniversary Show, written/performed by Wayne Doba and Andrea Conway.
Back for another season, vintage vaudeville meets musical romance in this story of an American entertainer who falls for a French Canadian barmaid.
As well, the Hudson Village Theatre offers its Opera and Ballet series from Oct. 3 to March 28, 2010.