麻豆传媒AV

Linda Lyon-Walls said she hoped the audience would enjoy Sexy Laundry and that it would provide "a smile and a nod of recognition."

It went way beyond that hope, with whoops and even snorts of laughter at the Dekker Centre during the final performances of the Battlefords Community Players 2013-14 theatre season.

Lyon-Walls co-star, real life husband Jim Walls, said, "I think most audiences can relate in one way or another with the characters of Alice and Henry. I hope the story will have a ring of truth about it."

Directed by Donna Challis, a long-time constant in the Battlefords theatre community, Sexy Laundry is about a couple who try to reintroduce some spark into their marriage with a romantic trip to a luxurious hotel. Sparks fly, not in the way they intended, and tears flow as the audience is torn between the hilarity of the moment and empathy for the situation. The play was written by Vancouver, B.C. playwright Michele Riml.

Challis said she was proud of the production, and the audience showed its appreciation with standing ovations and congratulations to the director, actors and crew in the gatherings following the preview April 8 and the three nights of production April 10, 11 and 12.

Walls said he was excited and pleased to be appearing in Sexy Laundry along side his co-star and wife. This is not the first time he has worked with her on stage. They co-starred in Michel Tremblay's For the Pleasure of Seeing Her Again, another two-person play in which Lyon-Walls commanded the stage for two hours as his quirky and melodramatic mother.

Walls has been seen many times on the Battlefords Community Players stage. He lists his most memorable roles as: Norman, personal assistant and dresser to "sir" in The Dresser; Arthur Kripps, the young lawyer alone in a house of dark secrets in the Woman in Black; Elwood, friend to a six-foot rabbit in Harvey; the Curate and several other characters in The Curate Shakespeare As You Like It; Richard, the drug-addled free spirit in You Are Here; and the 87-year-old Judge Biddle in Trying.

Walls has received the Theatre Saskatchewan Festival award for Best Actor in a leading role twice with BCP and once with Melfort Amateur Dramatics. He has been in the cast of four BCP shows that have won Best Entry in the Theatre Saskatchewan Theatre Fest.

Lyon-Walls' return to the BCP stage in Sexy Laundry follows her recent appearance as the inspector in The Game's Afoot, the 2013-14 season opener. She is known for her many roles with BCP including her favourites: Vita Louise, Elwood's dotty sister in Harvey; Ida, the merry and wise widow in the Cemetery Club; Jeannette, the depressive wife in Last of the Red Hot Lovers; and the religiously delusional Harriet in Back to Beulah.

Lyon-Walls was a founding member of Crocus 80 Theatre in Weyburn and a regular with Melfort Amateur Dramatics. She has also made a number of appearances with the Cochin Community Players in the past few years as well as appearing in Silent Night, Lonely Night with St. Thomas Ontario's Elgin Theatre Guild.

Lyon-Walls also has a number of directing credits including Surprise, Surprise by Michel Tremblay and Neil Simon's Plaza Suite.

In 2003, she won the Theatre Saskatchewan Festival Woodward Award for Best Actress in a leading role as Ida in the Cemetery Club. She followed that the next year with the Best Characterization Award for her role as Dolly, the terrified maid in Ravenscroft. She has been in the cast for three Festival Best Entry shows including Harvey, You Are Here and The Curate Shakespeare As You Like It.

While the actors were only two, there was a much bigger number behind the scenes: Liz Smith, stage manager; Kathy Beach, assistant stage manager; Donna Challis, set design; Doreen Wells, set decor; Bill Wells and Bob Horrell, set construction; Jim McFarlane, Bill Bishop, Brian Corley, Barry Ursaki and Bryan Beach, set crew; Kathy Beach, make-up and hair and Ms. Lyon-Walls' dresser; Geordie Smith, lighting; John Dyck, sound creation; Brian Beach and John Dyck, sound operators; and Leanne Merkowsky, storyboard.

Sexy Laundry is the Battleford Community Players' entry into TheatreFest 2014 in Swift Current in late April.

Next up for the Battlefords Community Players is a clubhouse production May 1, 2 and 3 featuring Judy Bishop, Clint Barrett, Norma Klassen, John Butler and Kate Maggrah in An Actor's Nightmare by Christopher Kurang.