ABOUT THE PLAY

It is post war Reserve Mines, Cape Breton and, after a short stint in the air force, young Ian MacDonald has returned to a household in disarray. His parents are feuding for some mysterious reason and his younger sister seems to be up to no good. The MacDonald family is quintessentially Cape Breton, full of wit and hard edges but ultimately deeply loving. This is a comedy that perfectly captures the spirit of the island, its humour and the tenacity of its people, and the hardscrabble existence of these mining communities that are at the heart of Cape Breton’s history.

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REVIEWS

"Mary Vingoe captures great humour and pathos in her elegant, sweeping adaptation of The Company Store,  Sheldon Currie's wry tale of love, loss and loyalty in a 1950's Cape Breton coal mining community.  Full of wit and surprising turns, this classic family tale illuminates another time; a time of hard scrabble resilience and resistance against the feudal oppression of the mine and steel companies. A time when people had to be as tough and flinty as a coal seam, just to hide hearts as tender as lost Gaelic ballads." - Mary-Colin Chisholm

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