Fernie Secondary School (FSS) students captivated audiences earlier this month with performances of the broadway smash The Fantasticks.
The students performed the play on June 6 to 9 to a full house, with Liam Faucher, Emilie Mann, Linden Gigliotti, Mike Lipewich, Jayden Gross, Sean Keagan, Chris Elia and Hope Milligan starring.
“The Fantasticks is a deceptively simple play about a boy, a girl, two fathers, and a wall,” said FSS drama teacher and director, Lorie Sinclair. “The fathers build the wall between their houses and pretend to feud in order to get their children to fall in love. Their plan is based on the theory that children always pursue whatever is forbidden them. The audience uses its imagination to follow the mysterious El Gallo as he creates a world of moonlight and magic, and then pain and disillusionment, until the boy and girl find their way back to one another.
“The play is highly stylized and combines old-fashioned showmanship, classical musical theatre, commedia dell’arte and Noh theatrical traditions. It has been performed the world over in 67 different countries, in almost as many languages. It is, in my opinion, one of the best musicals ever written.”