Odd Ducks

Welcome to the small town of Tartan Cross, Nova Scotia, where skeletons rattle in closets and past histories are so intertwined that the lives of four fortysomething, eccentric characters have become so complicated that something needs to change. In the comedy, Odd Ducks, award-winning playwright Bryden MacDonald positions his four characters at the brink of existential angst – and the action unfolds from there.

At the centre of the drama is Ambrose, an irredeemable reprobate and the type of guy who rants philosophically at the bar while mooching beer from his friends. He’s a narcissist who thinks he’s God’s gift to women. And he’s having an affair with Mandy Menzies, a charming and beautiful brunette who was the high school beauty queen but is now stuck in a marriage of convenience and a life of boredom. Her housekeeper, Estelle Carmichael, has seen it all, but her prickly exterior belies a loving heart. The dryly funny Freddy Durdle is the perfect counter-balance to over-the-top Ambrose.

All four oddballs seem stuck in their lives, but searing sarcasm relieves the boredom and crazy, everyday dramas aid their struggle to move on and keep things light.

Cast of 2 women and 2 men.

AUTHOR

Bryden MacDonald

Bryden MacDonald is a playwright, director, actor and teacher. His published plays are Whale Riding Weather, The Weekend Healer, Divinity Bash/nine lives, With Bated Breath, and Odd Ducks. He’s created and directed theatrical interpretations of the words and music of Leonard Cohen (“Sincerely a Friend”), Carol Pope & Rough Trade (“Shaking the Foundations”), and Joni Mitchell (“When All the Slaves Are Free”). He has coached students at the National Theatre School of Canada and McGill University. He’s been in residence at Factory Theatre; The National Theatre School; Playwrights’ Workshop Montreal; Mulgrave Road; Neptune Theatre; The Stratford Festival and Buddies in Bad Times Theatre. Bryden lives in Halifax.

Reviews

“Odd Ducks is a tragedy that is essentially a comedy because really, without comedy, nothing can be taken seriously … The writing sizzles and sings … the play builds to a great finish.”
– Chronicle Herald (Halifax)

“The dialogue is snappy, the laughs are frequent.”
– The Coast (Halifax)