Tempting Providence - A Live Play in Cedar

After 7 sold out shows in Duncan the Mercury Players are on the road with their production of Tempting Providence by Robert Chafe.

Friday Evening Performance May 5 at 7:00pmm Sunday matinee at 2:00pm.

Doors open 30 minutes before performance. You will be welcomed with live Newfoundland music by Jeremy Walsh. Make sure you get to Cedar by 6:30pm if you can!

Tickets are 25.00 (20.00 for seniors/students). Also available at the door unless sold out on eventbrite.

20 April update: Preparations are going very well. Dress rehearsal on Friday 28 April at about 6:00-6:30. Some guests welcome for a free preview. Contact [email protected].

The Mercury Players are presenting Robert Chafe's internationally acclaimed play Tempting Providence . It's the true story of an extraordinary woman nurse Myra Bennett "the Florence Nightingale of Newfoundland." She arrived from England in 1921 to bring her desperately needed medical and midwifery skills to 320 kilometers of isolated coastal communities.  

This magically inventive comedy-drama will transport you back to a time when people struggled even harder than today to survive. The nearest hospital was days away and forceful weather disease work accidents malnutrition and childbirth could claim your life quickly. You will meet the hard working people of Daniel's Harbour an outport with a vast roadless community whom Nurse Bennett must serve. She travels by foot boat or dogsled depending on the season. Some of her patients are stubbornly superstitious while others are willing to learn from "the Nurse." From those in robust good health to those in dreadful pain all possess the grit courage and humanity to sustain themselves and their neighbours through extremely hard times.  Tempting Providence  explores Bennett's steely British resolve but also humour and compassion for all those Newfoundlanders she comes to know and care for.  At the core of the play is the love story between her and her pragmatic husband Angus.  

Tempting Providence is a powerful exhilarating play that offers suspense and adventure as well as touching and endearing moments. It's a chance to know one of our bravest most socially committed Canadians and to renew your faith in communities helping each other.  The production will also integrate spectacular Newfoundland imagery the silent ever present character in this story.

Genevieve Charbonneau plays Myra Mateo Tomlinson plays Angus Sylvia Swift plays Woman (several female characters) and Rob Foell plays Man (several male characters)

Producer: Lisa Read

Stage Manager: Leslie Sanchez

Contact: [email protected]

Host or Publisher The Mercury Players Society