On the Mainstage:
The Casket Scene
Written and Directed by Catherine Racine
Denied the access to her mother's body she had craved from the moment of her death, Catherine has come to the funeral home to sit with her mother and attend to her body with the help of her best friend, Eileen. The story is a reflection on death, women’s friendship, the power of ritual, and the intimacy of the mother-daughter bond.
Genesis of the Show:
The Casket Scene is part of a memoir the playwright is currently finishing on her relationship with her mother. The Casket Scene was first written as a short story in 2010 and presented in 2011 at a conference in the UK for the British Association for the Study of Religion, where the author spoke on “Reclaiming a connection to the body of the deceased: A personal narrative and analysis of ‘intimate’ ritual.” The play explores the fragile boundaries of the numinous and the nature of yearning and intimacy through a daughter’s interaction with her mother’s dead body and the life-long friend who has come to bear witness and dignify a ritual they share.
Catherine Rancine
… is tickled to be playing in Fresh Meat after a lifetime away from Ottawa. Theatre and writing have called me out to play since childhood. I studied theatre at Ottawa U, wrote a play for the Vancouver Fringe, and told stories at the Vancouver Story Telling Fest. My most recent gig was playing Florence Foster Jenkins - the wacky socialite who sang offkey - in Peter Quilter’s Glorious! at Durham Theatre, while I pursued the subject of wonder and clinical ethics in PhD studies at Durham University in North East England. I published my first book, Beyond Clinical Dehumanisation towards the Other in Community Mental Health Care, in 2021. Rather than becoming a professional singer-actor, as I thought I might, I studied psychology at UBC, worked as a clinical therapist in community mental health, and went to grad school in the UK at the tender age of 60 to pursue a life-long dream. I find myself now on the brink of exciting new beginnings with The Casket Scene, based on a memoir I am writing about my relationship with my mother that l look forward to publishing. What a ride!
Rachel Eugster
…is an actor and singer (and more!), Rachel has worked in assorted settings in Canada and the U.S., including Vermont barns, Ottawa and Baltimore parks, and the Kennedy Center stage. In Ottawa, Rachel has appeared in or co-produced two dozen shows at The Gladstone presented by its professional resident companies (Bear & Co., Three Sisters, Plosive, and Seven-thirty). She conducts the Tamir Neshama Choir and the SJCC Singers, and with classical guitarist, Andrew Mah, founded the ensemble The Purring Dragons. Rachel is the author of six children’s books and the play Whose Æmilia?, which attempts to bring the poet Æmilia Lanyer out from behind Shakespeare’s shadow.
In December, you will find Rachel performing with Nicholas Amott in the GCTC Studio in a remount of Bear’s A Child’s Christmas in Wales & CarolSing, and in May at The Gladstone in Bear’s upcoming production of The Children by Lucy Kirkwood, with Beverley Wolfe and Hugh Nielsen, directed by Eleanor Crowder.
Rachel co-chairs the local chapter of Democrats Abroad, for whom she co-hosts the podcast The Blue Vote Café with David Schellenberg, and she urges everyone who was born in the U.S. (or whose parent was) to vote.
Festival artwork by Sage Hartly
Premiered October 19 - 21, 2023.
I acknowledge with joy and no small gratitude the fine team of actors, Rachel Eugster, Beverley Wolfe and Lawrence Evenchick, who have brought this play to life. Thank you all for your generosity, skill and patience. Loving thanks to my writing collective, Janna Klostermann, Sharon Hamilton and Susanne Fletcher, without whose encouragement and support this newly budded work would not have emerged. I dedicate this work to my niece, Stephanie Dugdale. — Catherine Racine
Beverley Wolfe
… is an actor, singer and playwright based in Ottawa, Beverley has performed in many of its theatres, including the NAC, GCTC, Odyssey Theatre, Plosive Productions, Third Wall theatre, Black Sheep Theatre and Evolution Theatre (winning a Prix Rideau Award). At the Ottawa Fringe Festival, she received an award for Best Individual Performance, as well as a Best in Venue Award for her one-person play, JUMP! Beverley coaches and tutors theatre students and, for nearly a decade, taught Writing for the Stage at Algonquin College. She looks forward to working in May at The Gladstone in Bear & Co.'s production of The Children, with Rachel Eugster and Hugh Neilson. Beverley would like to applaud her fellow working artists, in all media forms, for hanging in there and pushing through the many uncertain times we face. As a friend once said: “Thank you for your service to our community.”
Lawrence Evenchick
Has been stomping around Ottawa stages for over (insert absurdly high number) years, performing in everything from Shakespeare to Sondheim and beyond. His roles have included M. Thenardier in Les Mis (Orion Theatre Company), John and James Jeckyll in Love! Valour! Compassion! (TotoToo Theatre), Sidney Bruhl in Deathtrap (Ottawa Little Theatre), and Dr. Scott in The Rocky Horror Show (Vanity Productions). Favourite productions in recent years include Minding Frankie, at The Gladstone Theatre, and Romeo and Juliet Redux, again, at The Gladstone. Lawrence has also taken a dip into film with some local independent film productions including The Soldier in the Barn; currently a semi-finalist in the Stockholm Film Festival taking place in the spring of 2024. Lawrence is also one of the owner/operators of Live! on Elgin…so check out our website and come see a show! www.liveonelgin.com