Letter From Wingfield Farm at Canadian gem

By Peter Rusland
Cowichan News Leader and Pictorial
January 28, 2009

Rod Beattie's portrayal of Walt and other guys in Chemainus Theatre's Letter From Wingfield Farm stands firmly beside sterling Canuck characters spanning Stuart McLean's Dave, and Don Harron's Charlie Farquarson to TV's Red Green.

Toss in hosers Bob and Doug McKenzie too.

Beattie served up playwright Dan Needles' comedic treasure in fine form during Wednesday's opening night.

But he'd had plenty of practice - Beattie has notched more than 3,500 performances of a Winfield play in the past 22 years.

That doesn't mean Beattie was slacking during the play's local debut.

From the time Ed, the small-town newspaper editor, shuffled in to read the first letter from Walt in Wingfield, we're hooked on this great one-hander.

The plot's simple.

Burned-out city slicker Walt buys the old Fisher place in rural Ontario.

But Walt's energetic naivety, mixed with a barn full of zany neighbours, takes us on a passel of down-home adventures spun by Beattie the master storyteller.

From Walt starting a fire at neighbour Freddy's house, and meeting bumbling geezer Squire, to seeking out firewood from Albert Coots, and buying King the giant horse, we can picture it all.

We know people who stutter like Freddy, talk like Irish Jimmy, and laugh like Freddy's goofy nephews Willy and Dave.

Beattie's animated nuances are so good, so natural we belief at times there's more than one actor on stage.

With simple hat changes, expression shifts and voice switches, Beattie introduces us to the cannily simple folks of tiny Larkspur.

It's the type of haywire place with too much time on its hands, perhaps like Duncan was two generations ago.

The usual becomes unusual really fast, leaving puzzled Walt scratching his head but happily going along for the ride.

After all, Larkspur life is exactly what he bargained for when he traded his overdraft for overalls.

Shades of TV's Green Acres, and Andy of Mayberry, blended easily with cultural quirks from the flick Fargo and other odd situations.

The result was pure, Leacock-level humour.

Life in Larkspur also leaves us envying straight-shooter Walt who has the time and pension to watch it all go by at the kitchen-table pace we long for someday.

Letter From Wingfield Farm runs until Feb. 14.

Humorous play rating: 9 cow patties out of 10

Beattie's Wingfield Farm is a warm and funny place

By Lexi Bainas
The Citizen
January 28, 2009

It's as unpretentious as a slice of whole wheat toast.

And just as good for you.

If you've got those winter blahs and just wish the next couple of months would disappear in a burst of spring sunshine, then pick up your phone and book tickets to Letter from Wingfield Farm starring Canadian acting legend Rod Beattie.

You'll love Rod Beattie as the retired stockbroker turned farmer in Letter from Wingfield Farm at the Chemainus Theatre until Valentine's Day.

It's on stage at the Chemainus Theatre until Feb. 14 and, once the word gets out, these tickets are going to be as scarce as hen's teeth.

Is the show that good?

You betcha.

It's hard to point to a single scene, incident, or even joke in the show as an example of the fun, however.

Beattie simply takes you to a small farming community, introduces you to a host of characters and then proceeds to perform them all himself.

The amazing charm of this show is that he does it seamlessly and so successfully that you'd swear you'd seen a large cast of fine actors.

The setting for Wingfield has a lot in common with some of the backwater corners of the Cowichan Valley and residents who love a bucolic lifestyle, or, like our hero, think they may, owe it to themselves to take in this fine show.

Call the box office at 800-565-7738 or 250-246-9820 for tickets.

More than one character in Wingfield

By Allison Vail
Ladysmith Chronicle
January 26, 2009

Rod Beattie has an elastic face.

OK, so it's not Jim Carrey elastic, but still, Beattie pulls off an impressive twist of expression in order to portray all the characters he has to be.

If acting as one man isn't exhausting, confusing and involved enough, Beattie has to act as several, as well as an old woman, and a dog. Woof.

Beattie is the one man show better known as Letter from Wingfield Farm, which screams Canadian. There's something about it that is somewhat Vinyl Cafe too. I think it's all the zany characters.

In a brief roundup of Letter from Wingfield Farm: the main character of the show is Walt Wingfield, a gently self effacing stockbroker who gives up the big bucks to pursue life as a farmer. His farm has some serious troubles, like only having one horse. And Walt, he likes to do things the hard way. No tractor for him.

He decides to write the editor of the local rag on a regular basis, to update the locals about his process on the farm. From there, Beattie spins into a series of well connected vignettes that tell Wingfield's amusing story.

Beattie's move from character to character is surprisingly smooth and uninterrupted. A twist of the neck, a straightening back, a wrinkled forehead make each character instantly identifiable.

First, there's Freddie, who I'm pretty sure is deranged but has a (relatively) good heart to go along with the fact that he hunts coons late at night. Freddie is Beattie's most physical role and the difference between Beattie as Walt and Beattie as Freddie is pretty darn astounding. I wonder if Freddie's voice is painful to use?

There are Freddie's strange nephews, the local mechanic and another old farmer.

Beattie also plays a dotty old woman - only for a few minutes, but it's quite hilarious. In fact, if audience laughter is any indication, the whole show is quite hilarious.

Beattie also has the good sense to wait for the laughter to die down before he carries on in one role or another.

Thankfully, the play is well written, or Beattie's excellent sense of comedic time would mean nothing. Dan Needles clearly has his finger on whatever it means to be Canadian in a small town.

Letter from Wingfield Farm is on stage at Chemainus Theatre Festival until Feb. 14.

Head on out to the farm in Chemainus

By Walter Cordery
Nanaimo Daily News
January 29, 2009

The star of the Chemainus Theatre's first show of 2009 expressed concern Tuesday morning that the snow that day may keep people from attending the matinee.

Letter from Wingfield Farm, one of six one-man plays in the Canadian series revolving around an urban dwellers move to country life, is playing at the theatre until Feb. 14.

"The show has been going just fine since we opened but today is a matinee and I understand people out here get nervous about driving in the snow," said Rod Beattie.

A veteran of the Stratford Festival in Ontario, Beattie plays Walt Wingfield, a stock broker-turned-farmer living in a fictional small town in Ontario called Persephone Township.

Beattie has performed all six of the Wingfield series -- Letter from Wingfield Farm, Wingfield's Progress, Wingfield's Folly, Wingfield Unbound, Wingfield on Ice and Wingfield's Inferno.

The shows were all authored by Beattie's long-time best friend Dan Needles and directed by his brother Douglas Beattie. The characters in the Wingfield series are composites of people that Beattie knows.

"For a number of years, the Wingfield shows were serialized on CBC Radio's Morningside with Peter Gzowski," said Beattie. "The first of the series that I performed in was in 1985," he said.

Beattie said he has "been best friends with Dan (Needles) since I was 10 years old."

And as for working with his brother, he said it is very much the same as working with other directors but obviously there is a familiarity so we sort of speak in shorthand. We almost know what each of us is thinking."

The three Ontario natives have always enjoyed working together and have always agreed on what they enjoyed in theatre.

"Ever since I can remember Dan, Doug and I have always found the same things funny and agreed on what we thought were good shows," said Beattie.

When asked if the Wingfield series wasn't following in the vision of famed American artist Norman Rockwell, in that it depicts a city dweller's fascination with the rural lifestyle, Beattie said he "understands the comparison.

"To some urban dwellers there is a fascination and curiousity of life in small rural communities. I think Dan (Needles) would be very flattered by the comparison," Beattie said.

Beattie was a member of the Stratford troupe for a decade, during which time he played numerous roles.

"I played in approximately 40 Shakespearian productions and an equal number of plays written by other authors," he said. One of his favourite roles is that of Ancient Pistol, a character in Henry V.

"He was very incendiary and would go off at any time. I suppose that's why he was called Pistol."