Marc Moir and Laura Turner have started a professional theater company, Looking Glass Productions. They are based in Steinbach, and "See No Evil" is their debut show. 

Turner says she is glad that “See No Evil” is the show that will introduce them to the community, and they are a professional company, so audiences can expect to be thoroughly entertained.  

“It is saying ‘here we are, this is the caliber of show that we are putting into the community, and we hope you guys will enjoy it and love it.’” 

Turner says their cast is full of professional actors currently in the industry or those who are wanting to break into professional acting. 

“We've had a few people ask, because we're doing it at the SRSS, if it's high school students,” she says. “And so just to clear that up, no we are using professional actors and you can tell. They are wonderful.” 

Moir adds that he wrote the first draft of the script back in 2012, so he is looking forward to seeing how far it has come now in 2023.

“So we did it back then and it was a solid script, and we did a radio version of it at the Fringe Festival around five years ago.” 

He says they wanted to show off their work to the community as a preview of what they plan to be doing before they start to run full seasons. 

“And this play was a natural fit, we knew it really well, and we were comfortable with it.” 

Their long-term goal is to have their own theater space right here in Steinbach. 

“Which will be for us to run our seasons of plays, probably five or six plays a year.” 

Moir says they envision having a warehouse-style space. 

“For anybody who's been to Prairie Theater Exchange and has seen the Colin Jackson Theater, that's kind of what we'd be looking at.” 

He says their goal is to have a 200-300 seat venue, and they would love to have seating that can be reconfigured for any show.  

“So let's say we put on a play like "To Kill A Mockingbird," well, all of a sudden 12 of those tickets you sold, people are sitting in the jury box. There's so much you can do with a warehouse-style space, and I think that's we're leaning towards, at least initially.” 

He notes it costs a lot of money to do live theatre, but at the same time, he thinks they can do it here in the Southeast for a reasonable price. 

"The arts is supposed to be for everybody, and we want to make sure that it remains affordable,” he says. “And I think people are going to be really blown away by the bang for buck with the quality of performances and shows they're going to see.” 

Moir says "See No Evil" is a fantastic script and a really fun show. 

“It's sort of a Hitchcock-style, suspense, mystery thriller. It's got charms and chills in equal measure. It's got laughs, it's got some good scares,” he says. “It's going to keep the audience guessing, quite literally, from the moment the curtain goes up to the moment the curtain falls, the audience won't know exactly what's happening or what to believe or who to believe.” 

He recommends the show for audiences in junior high and up. 

“People can watch something on TV and it's less affecting than when you see it happening live in front of you, so there's some scenes of violence, some mature subject matter, so I'd say junior high up.”

Turner is excited to do a run of the show in both Steinbach and Morden, as they get the opportunity for more people in the Southeast to come see the show. 

“And that's really what we want to do is just make a statement of saying ‘we are here, we're here to stay, we're really excited about this community and we hope this community is going to be just as excited about us.’” 

 

Show times, dates, and locations: 

 

SRSS Theatre, Steinbach 

Friday, May 19th, at 7:30pm 

Saturday, May 20th, at 2pm and 7:30pm 

Friday, May 26th, at 7:30pm 

Saturday, May 27th, at 2pm and 7:30pm 

 

Kenmore Theatre, Morden 

Friday, June 9, at 7pm 

Saturday, June 10, at 2pm and 7pm 

 

*Tickets are $30 and can be purchased in advance or at the door. It’s currently all cash only. 

 

With files from Kenton Dyck