Fore! Many Hats swings into 2025 with Norm Fosters' lighthearted 'The Ladies Foursome'

What happens when a longtime golfing foursome comprised of 40- and 50-somethings loses one of its own?

Sadness? Vulnerability? Sure, that’s to be expected. But in Canadian playwright Norm Foster's world, the emotions run far beyond that.

In "The Ladies Foursome," a Foster play first performed in 2014, three women gather once again at the course they've long used as a social backdrop, where they'll reminisce about their dearly departed fourth (named Catherine), chat about life, and maybe even smack a few balls while they're at it.

Catherine's funeral, you see, was just yesterday. So they're all still fully involved.

But Foster doesn't waste time miring the audience in grief.

Almost immediately one of the group cracks a can of beer – at 8:30 in the morning. Another is late because she's busy chasing down a cart boy a couple decades her junior. The day before, at the funeral, she may or may not have slept with Catherine's own brother!

And when it's revealed their good friend met her maker while riding a Ferris wheel – and not how you might think, but when she was tragically struck by lightning at the very top – it’s clear that The Ladies Foursome is anything but a ride down melancholy lane.

The comedy is the first production of 2025 for veteran Penticton company Many Hats Theatre.

Directed by Jane Pilkey, produced by Ross Arnot and Ed Schneider, and starring Shannon French, Cheryl Gill, Adele McNary and Jane Stead, the play, which opens Feb. 7 at The Cannery Stage, is filled with familiar names.

"I've been here 14 years now," smiled Pilkey Wednesday afternoon when we asked her. "But that doesn't mean I've been here the longest. Both Ross and Ed and a bunch more were all here before me."

Pilkey knows of what she speaks. Both producers of The Ladies Foursome, along with several other current members, are part of the original group of 17 that kick-started Many Hats almost 20 years ago.

"So anyway," explained Pilkey, "Norm Foster once wrote a play called 'The Foursome,' which is about a men's foursome. We actually did that play here, years and years ago.

"But much later he took that idea further and wrote The Ladies Foursome. He completely rewrote it and made it about women."

Pilkey said she knew when she first read the script that she'd want to bring it to the Many Hats stage.

"If I laugh out loud when I'm reading something," she said. "then I know I've got one that'll work. Normally I don’t react at all."

That it was penned by Foster made it all the more a natural. His scripts are no stranger to the Many Hats audience.

"He has such a profound sense of setting and characterization and relationships," said Pilkey. "That's why I identify with him so well. It's his writing. The little things really count.

"And he knows women. He knows how they relate to each other, he knows the relationships between each other, what they find funny, the angst that happens and how they deal with it, and how they solve their problems together."

And in Foursome, Foster has some fun with all that knowledge.

"Soon, a new lady joins the threesome," said Pilkey, "and they spend the day together golfing and learning about each other. There are arguments and discussion and wonderful fun moments. It's a really lighthearted, heartwarming story.

"You'll laugh and you may even cry and you'll feel really good at the end of the show."

But PentictonNow caught a good chunk of Wednesday's rehearsal, and can say there are more surprises in store than Pilkey lets on.

The Ladies Foursome debuts Friday, Feb. 7 and runs every Friday, Saturday and Sunday through to March 2. Friday and Saturday shows begin at 7:30 PM, while Sunday matinees open at 2.

Tickets are $35 for adults and two bucks less for seniors and students. To get yours, go here.