Whimsy delivers with funny performances

Sheldon Davis, left, Graham Percy and David LeReaney play the founding fathers of Outer Baldonia.

Photograph by: Lorraine Hjalte, Calgary Herald

Note: Several weeks ago, we posted about an interesting play being produced by Lunchbox Theatre. If you're interested in attending, you've only got this evening and tomorrow to fit this into your schedule.

Whimsy delivers with funny performances

Novice playwright's smart idea is given its due by cast

By Bob Clark,

Calgary Herald

April 9, 2012

REVIEW

Lunchbox Theatre presents The Whimsy State or the Principality of Outer Baldonia by AJ Demers through April 21. Tickets: 403-265-4292. Rating 3 ½ out of five

Stories where the little guy gets to play the big guys' game are always fun.

And the truer the story, the better the fiction.

The new Lunchbox comedy - The Whimsy State or the Principality of Outer Baldonia by Loose Moose improv alumnus and novice playwright AJ Demers - is no exception. That's thanks to a tight script - based on a little-known footnote in Canadian history - and some amusing performances from the four-person cast.

The intriguing premise of Demers's 65-minute play dates from the establishment in 1948 - complete with charter, flag, and a small contingent of military-minded (sort of) fishermen - of the Principality of Outer Baldonia. The island nation of barely four acres lay about 15 kilometres off the coast of Nova Scotia from Yarmouth.

Reeling in the magic of a little nation

Calgary Herald Playwright AJ Demers, inside of Hanson’s Fishing Outfitters on Thursday March 29 2012 in Calgary, whose new play The Whimsy State of Outer Baldonia tells the story of how three fishing buddies created their own country, off the Nova Scotia coast, around 1948, and opens at the Luncbox April 2.

Photograph by: Dean Bicknell, Calgary Herald

Reeling in the magic of a little nation

By Stephen Hunt

Calgary Herald

April 4, 2012

The Whimsy State takes the form of a bar story

Playwrights find stories the way some people find spare change in the pocket of old pants.

In Calgary playwright AJ Demers’ case, it was a story about three fishing buddies who decided to create a new country out of their favourite fishing hole, a small island off the Nova Scotia coast.

“Years ago, a friend handed me a magazine article on micronations,” says Demers, “and (said), this might be something great to write. “I looked at it,” he adds, “and went, absolutely! And Baldonia (the name of the country in question) absolutely jumped off the page.”

Read more here