Pontypool, Ont., is a 125-year-old, unassuming, sleepy village located outside Peterborough.
The Right Road to Pontypool premieres July 1 in Millbrook, Ont.
In 1916, larger-than-life Polish-Jewish immigrant Moishe Yukle Bernstein, aware that Toronto’s garment workers and their families had no relief from the sweltering city heat, opened up his Pontypool home as a summer getaway. It quickly became the place for eastern European Jewish immigrants to summer.
On July 1, 4th Line Theatre in Millbrook, Ont., presents the world première of The Right Road to Pontypool, penned by Toronto-based actor and playwright Alex Poch-Goldin.
“The story is about the rise and fall of the town,” he says. “It was a Protestant town that the Jews came to. It became wealthier because money was being spent in the community, and then it faulted away. It is a historical play based on my imagination.”
In its heyday, Pontypool became the home to five Jewish resorts. Every Friday afternoon, thousands of people came by train to enjoy their weekend at this no-frills resort locale. This time in history made a deep cultural impact on the region.
“Pontypool was like a mini-Catskills, but less affluent,” Poch-Goldin says. “At 4th Line Theatre, they do historical plays about the region and Pontypool is so close by.
“I was given some seed money to come up with a couple of scenes, then we did a public reading and over 100 people showed up at the Peterborough Museum. The response was really good, so they commissioned me to write the play.”
The Right Road to Pontypool is directed by Kim Blackwell and features a cast of 40. Dov Mickelson plays Moishe, and the story follows his family throughout the years to the present-day story of his granddaughter, Doris Manetta, played by Ellen-Ray Hennessy, alongside Allan Price as Cousin Harry.
“I interviewed a bunch of people,”
Poch-Goldin says. “Doris Manetta was the person I got the most information from, and so I decided to make her a character in the play. I think Doris is charmed by that.
“It’s based on characters, some fictional and some real, but the story is a factitious tale inspirited by true events. It was important that as much as I wanted to tell my own unique story, that I wasn’t creating falsehoods about the place. I learned about that world.”
The Pontypool lasted as a Jewish resort until the late 1970s. “I think the demise was [because] the community became wealthier over time – they would send their kids to camp and buy cottages in Muskoka and Haliburton,” Poch-Goldin says.
“There wasn’t much to recommend in Pontypool, other than it was cheap, out of the city and it was the community that people were comfortable with. There was a synagogue built in the late ’40s – a seasonal synagogue because there were only a few permanent Jewish residents in the town.”
Poch-Goldin is an award-winning playwright and actor whose work has been produced on international stages, and for CBC-TV and Bravo Television. He’s also artistic director of the Planet 88 Theatre Company in Toronto. His theatre writing includes the Dora nominated Cringeworthy, This Hotel and Yahrzeit, which begins its third tour of Germany in 2010.
He has been playwright-in-residence for CanStage and Theatre Passe Muraille, and has developed work with the Winnipeg Jewish Theatre, Buddies in Bad Times and Tarragon Theatre. Most recently, Poch-Goldin wrote an opera libretto for Tapestry New Opera titled The Shadow, slated for production in May 2009.
The Right Road to Pontypool runs from July 1 to Aug. 1, Tuesday through Saturday at 6 p.m. 4th Line Theatre is located on The Winslow Farm, 779 Zion Line, Millbrook. For more information, visit www.4thlinetheatre.on.ca.