A Show You Won’t Soon Forget
Reviewed by Tori Laird and Sandi Laird
Experience the World Premiere of Deadly Memories at Port Stanley Festival Theatre (PSFT), written by Canadian playwright Steven Gallagher, who attended the opening night show. (Gallagher also acts – you may have seen him recently in Come From Away at the Grand Theatre.) The audience laughs, cheers and gasps through this fast-paced and entertaining show. Deadly Memories plays at PSFT until August 15. The show runs just under two hours with intermission.
Wagner, and his amnesiac wife Cassandra, arrive at their log cabin on Fox Island on Lake Erie to continue her recovery with hopes of sparking a memory at her beloved summer house. But Cassandra is seeing and hearing things that Wagner is not. Have her psychotic episodes returned now that she’s woken from the coma post-car crash? This is all news to the audience and, as she reminds us, poor Cassandra cannot even remember her honeymoon with her devoted husband. Once Cassandra’s sister, Juniper, arrives, chaos erupts with contradictory accounts of Cassandra’s accident coming from both sides all while she hallucinates from a recurrence of a purported psychotic break! Intermission ends right after a shocking development, and the audience could be heard debating what would happen next! It’s an exciting and twisty reveal-filled second half that you’ll have to see to believe.
All the actors, Kristen Da Silva (who wrote PSFT’s last show Sugar Road), Gaelan Beatty and Kristi Woods, played their parts well and worked together to create hilarity and surprises. Shout out to Joe Recchia and team for bringing the cabin set to life so well. PSFT always has creative, picture-perfect sets to establish the scene. Book your tickets today to experience all the twists and turns of Deadly Memories before it’s too late!
Deadly Memories continues at the Port Stanley Festival Theatre until August 15. Tickets are available at the box office at 519-782-4353 or visit https://psft.ca/
Photo: (left to right) The cast of Deadly Memories: Kristen Da Silva, Gaelan Beatty and Kristi Woods. Photo by Shutter Studio.
Deadly Memories
Written by Steven Gallagher
Directed by Artistic Director Liz Gilroy
Staged Managed by Laura Grandfield
Set Design by Joe Recchia
Lighting Design by Karen Crichton
Costume design by Alex Amini.
Performed by Gaelan Beatty, Kristen Da Silva and Kristi Woods
Port Stanley Festival Theatre, 6-302 Bridge Street, Port Stanley, ON
July 29 to August 15, 2026
Reviewed by Tori Laird and Sandi Laird