CBLA reignites summer stage, me old trout
Highland Arts Theatre (HAT), Sydney, is remounting its delightful musical, The Return of the Cape Breton Liberation Army, Thursdays all this summer (2019).
An Original Musical by Wesley J. Colford, the play is inspired by work of Paul “Moose” MacKinnon’s 1970s comic project, Old Trout Funnies, a homegrown satirical series of comic books.
MacKinnon’s Cape Breton comic book heroes, the Cape Breton Liberation Army, led a revolution, lampooning local and provincial politics, labour unions, environmental activism, government infrastructure projects and back-to-the-landers. Through the farcical exploits of the CBLA, Old Trout Funnies parodied and played with the caricature of Cape Bretoners as shiftless, happy-go-lucky rogues whose motivation emanated from the taverns.
In 2015, CBU Press published Old Trout Funnies: The Comic Origins of the Cape Breton Liberation Army, in which folklorist Ian Brodie explores the themes and the legacy of the comics, providing the cultural and historical context for a project that was intensely esoteric and in-the-moment. Included in the book are the complete runs of the comics, a series of related calendars by MacKinnon, some rarely seen ancillary images of the CBLA, and of some unfinished and unpublished works.
In 2016, HAT enjoyed a successful debut of the CBLA’s Return, scripting “a new team of heroes for a new generation.”
With an additional storyline and choreography by Thomas L. Colford, the play’s “the rag-tag CBLA battles mainlander ruffians, prehistoric lobsters, and the infamous Tar Pond Monster. … Not the heroes Cape Breton deserves, but the heroes Cape Breton has to bloody well live with, b’y!”
The Return of the Cape Breton Liberation Army, plays Thursdays, 8p.m., July 11-August 22 (2019). Highland Arts Theatre is at 40 Bentinck St., downtown Sydney. The office is open Monday to Friday, 11:00 a.m. to 4:00 p.m. and the front Box Office for the hour before show time. HAT (902) 565-3637, info@highlandartstheatre.com, highlandartstheatre.com.