Kristen Da Silva’s Sugar Road opens with a premise tailor-made for the Thousand Islands theatre: at a fading fairground, Hannah Taylor (Fiona Mongillo) sets out to save her family’s park by booking country music star Jesse Emberley (Will Carr) to headline the Spurs and Hearts Festival, a fictional event the house programme notes was inspired by the actual Boots and Hearts Festival.
The script draws much of its emotional force from Hannah and Jesse’s shared past. Twelve years earlier, he came to Sugar Road as an aspiring singer. The two spent a romantic evening under the stars—an event the play recalls with a fitting sense of nostalgia, strengthened by thoughtful and gentle choices from the actors and creative team.
Secondary characters are drawn with enough specificity to keep the story watchable. Hannah’s best friend, Caroline Dawn (Debbie Collins), a die-hard Jesse Emberley fan, prepares to camp overnight for tickets. She provides broad comic enthusiasm and bravado. Ray Bishop (John Cleland), Sugar Road’s handyman and a former roadie, brings steadier emotional weight through his long connection to Hannah’s family.
From there, the play leans comfortably into romantic-comedy, Hallmark conventions: will Hannah and Jesse recognize what they once meant to each other, or has fame—and time—made that impossible?
Da Silva’s script is not without its thinner passages, and this production does not entirely smooth over every structural wobble. To explain further would spoil a turn of events in the plot. Even so, the creative team has a sure grasp of the play’s desired effect. The audience around me seemed more than willing to yield to its wistful, open-hearted vision of love and second chances.
That response counts for a great deal, and that is exactly what McCarthy wanted to achieve when she describes in her Director’s Note: “I hope audiences will leave …thinking about …young love with big smiles on their faces.” I certainly did.
Much of the production’s charm lies in its design, which vividly evokes the park’s faded allure. Robin Fisher’s set captures its worn scale with detail, while Louise Guinand’s bright lighting and blue-sky backdrop bathe the Springer stage in a persuasive summer glow. The weathered ticket booth and shed, where Hannah sleeps on a cot, enrich the world of the play rather than simply dressing it. Richard Feren’s sound design is particularly deft in the musical sequences, maintaining a careful balance that allows Will Carr’s vocals to ring through clearly in the Act 2 festival number.
Director Sheila McCarthy keeps the production grounded in sometimes humourous, yet often tender connection with others rather than reverting to a saccharine sentimentality. She shapes the four central characters with generosity and her affection for them gives this production a coherence that the script, at times, cannot fully supply on its own.
The cast meets that tone well, delivering credible, emotionally open performances.
Debbie Collins makes Caroline a buoyant comic force, using the character’s boldness and irreverence to throw Fiona Mongillo’s more inward, searching Hannah into sharper relief. Collins’ business with the sleeping bag remains genuinely funny. As Ray, John Cleland brings easy authority and lived-in warmth, particularly in Act 2, where his reflections on love and disappointment add welcome depth. Will Carr gives Jesse a tender, unforced assurance, and his rapport with Mongillo registers clearly; together, they play the characters’ shared history with affecting sweetness and a lingering ache, with the hope and wonder of whether they will ultimately be together.
Sugar Road offers more than rom-com charm. The Thousand Islands’ production stages the ways people misread and misconstrue one another with gentle insight. The play also suggests that while some relationships merit a second chance and others do not, the impulse to reach back toward connection remains deeply human.
With this likeable cast on the playbill, please make a trip to see Sugar Road at the Springer Theatre.
Running time: approximately one hour and 30 minutes with one intermission/interval
The production runs to June 14 at the Springer Theatre, Thousand Islands Playhouse, Gananoque. For tickets: 1000islandsplayhouse.com or call (613) 382-7020.
Thousand Islands Playhouse presents Sugar Road by Kristen Da Silva
Music by Ian Blackwood
Lyrics by Kristen Da Silva and Ian Blackwood
Directed by Sheila McCarthy
Set and Costume Designer: Robin Fisher
Lighting Designer: Louise Guinand
Sound Design & Additional Music Composition: Richard Feren
Stage Manager: Alyse Szatkowski
Performers: Will Carr, John Cleland, Debbie Collins, Fiona Mongillo,
