“I lost my wife two years ago and tonight is the first time since I lost her that I laughed again.”
That, says actor Daryl Marks, is the sort of positive reaction he received following the opening night performance of Looking, a Scarborough Players production about love.
Actor Daryl Marks, who plays Andy in Norm Foster’s Looking, speaks about one audience member’s heartwarming experience.
“He said, ‘I wanted to tell you what a great show it was’,” said Marks, who’s been with the theatre company since 1991.
Looking, written by Canadian playwright Norm Foster, premiered on Sept. 13 and runs at Theatre Scarborough until Sept. 28.
The story follows a comedic hunt for love, where a nurse, an entrepreneur, a talk show host and a police officer find themselves at a pub.
“The opening night, we received a standing ovation,” said Looking’s director Jim Hyslop. “The audience reaction has been very positive.”
Hyslop is directing for the first time but he has been with the theatre company for 20 years.
“I have worked in all sorts of aspects of the theatre,” he said. “I have been acting on stage, lighting, sound, stage management and carpentry.”
Marks, who plays Andy in Looking, said he’s having fun playing the role but noted some differences between him and his character.
“(Andy) is very shy and nervous around women,” he said. “He’d like to get a girlfriend but he does not know about how to talk to them.
“It’s a nice role. It’s a funny role.”
Erin Jones, another longtime theatre company actor, plays Val in the show.
“(Val) is prim and proper, insecure,” she said. “It was neat to explore those dimensions.
“And then there’s a turn in the character where she becomes stronger, so it’s kind of neat to take (the character) from somebody who is insecure to someone who is more secure about themselves. And that’s what makes the play so much fun and easy to relate to.”
Like Marks, Jones said she felt and heard the positive feedback from the audience on opening night.
“It was overwhelming,” she said. “They loved our timing. They couldn’t stop laughing.
“The audience have been very giving and very lovely.”
Looking runs until Sept. 28 at Theatre Scarborough, 3600 Kingston Rd. Tickets are $20.
A “talk back” — where the audience can interact with the cast and crew — is scheduled for Sept. 26.
