The world premiere of “Piggyland’ revisits a troubling regional Sunderland story that remains worthy of public attention and audience visit.
Inspired by events in Sunderland, Ont., in the early 1960s, Piggyland examines a scheme devised by career conman John Laun. The farm attracted more than a million dollars from investors who were promised returns of two or three times their original stakes. The investors lost their money instead, and Laun disappeared from Sunderland without explanation.
The production frames the episode as both a historical account and a cautionary tale about promises that appear too good to be true.
Piggyland approaches the familiar mechanics of a confidence scheme through a distinctly local lens.
The story unfolds in a Spanish jail cell circa 1965, where Inspector Archie Easton (Craig Martin) interrogates John Laun (Graeme Powell) about Piggyland and the money he ran off with, leaving many people destitute. While Easton remains in 1965, Laun jumps between the inspector and events in Sunderland from 1960 to 1962, when he bought a farm and began bilking people. Local residents Frank (Grant Evans), Norman (Howard Linscott), Harvey (Nathan Simpson), and Larry (Lisha Van Nieuwenhove) talk and joke about the new person in town who bought a farm and hopes to sell pigs to potential investors. Laun’s past also comes back to haunt him when his ex-wife, Maria Reidinger (Van Nieuwenhove), arrives.
Laun continues building Piggyland, hiring newly arrived German Peter Beekman (Simpson) to help tend the pigs and keep the daily business running. Once Piggyland opens to the public, Emiel Van Stratton (Michael Serres) and his wife, Hilda (Annette Stokes-Harris), become among Laun’s victims.
The outdoor setting on the Scugog Shores Museum grounds is well matched to the world premiere. Its rolling landscape evokes the rural environment that investors would have encountered in the early 1960s. Carey Nicholson’s diamond-shaped stage projects toward the audience, while the visible backstage area keeps the performers and props in view.
A raised Spanish prison cell occupies stage left, while the main playing area represents Piggyland three years earlier. Grace Perlmutter and Aaron Arculus assemble period costumes that do their best to distinguish the early 1960s setting; Laun’s white linen suit is particularly effective. Perlmutter’s lighting makes practical use of the fading natural light, allowing the gathering dusk to reinforce the gradual disclosure of Laun’s past. Lyle Corrigan’s sound design is restrained, although the rain effect during the interrogation is at times too faint to register fully.
The ensemble faces the demanding task of differentiating characters drawn from Sunderland’s immigrant communities. Costume, posture, movement and vocal work generally establish those distinctions. The supporting performances are credible overall, though several accents are introduced more consistently than they are sustained.
Under Carey Nicholson’s keen direction and interest in the play’s subject, Powell’s script balances the fraud narrative with intermittent humour. The four local residents (Evans, Linscott, Simpson and Van Nieuwenhove) establish an easy small-town rhythm, though the broad comic pattern occasionally risks flattening their individuality. It sounds acutely familiar to the Larry, Darry and Darryl comic backwoodsmen from the mid 1990s Newhart television series.
The script is strongest in scenes of direct conflict. Simpson conveys Peter Beekman’s mounting alarm as he confronts Laun over the treatment of the pigs, and Laun’s attempt to buy his silence efficiently exposes the power imbalance between them.
As investors, Emiel and Hilda Van Stratton, Michael Serres and Annette Stokes-Harris represent the ordinary trust on which Laun’s scheme depends. Serres presents Emiel as optimistic to the point of imprudence, while Stokes-Harris gives Hilda a practical intelligence that sharpens the couple’s eventual loss. Her composed response to the collapse is an affecting moment, but it didn’t register as strongly as it could have with the audience on this night.
Craig Martin gives Inspector Archie Easton a suitably blunt authority, making clear from the outset that the interrogation is consequential rather than conversational. When Laun moves into scenes from the past, Martin remains unobtrusive at the desk and avoids competing with the principal action. On such an intimate stage, however, Easton’s prolonged presence during some flashbacks can feel dramatically unnecessary; a brief exit might give those transitions greater clarity.
Graeme Powell remains the reason to see Piggyland.
His affable manner gives the Sunderland grifter a persuasive surface charm.
Powell sustains Laun’s credibility from his first entrance through the final scene. Carefully timed pearly white smiles and an assured physical presence suggest how he wins the confidence of investors such as the Van Strattons. In the prison interrogation, the power balance shifts as Laun identifies Easton’s personal vulnerability. Powell’s controlled use of voice and posture makes the reversal convincing without overstating it.
The exchange between Powell’s Laun and Martin’s Easton is among the production’s clearest examples of how performance sharpens the script’s psychological stakes.
This world premiere brings a little-known local story to the stage with evident commitment from its cast and creative team. Its strongest scenes connect the mechanics of Laun’s deception with the personal cost borne by those who trusted him.
Piggyland adds a noteworthy regional episode to the Canadian stage. Further development of the script could tighten the flashback structure, deepen some supporting characters and improve the consistency of the vocal work, but the current production establishes a sound basis for future revisions and presentations.
For audiences interested in regional history and stories of financial deception, the Port Perry staging offers a clear and accessible account.
Go and see it. I hear tickets are going quickly so it’s best either to call or email.
Running time: approximately 75 minutes with no intermission/interval.
The production runs until September 20 at the Scugog Shores Museum and Village, 16210 Island Road, Port Perry. For tickets: theatreontheridge.ca, info@theatreontheridge.ca, or call the Box Office (905) 242-9343.
THEATRE ON THE RIDGE presents the World Premiere
Piggyland by Graeme Powell
Directed by Carey Nicholson
Set and Production Design: Carey Nicholson
Lighting Design: Grace Perlmutter
Vocal Director and Sound Design: Lyle Corrigan
Costume and Props Coordinator: Grace Perlmutter
Costume and Props Associate: Aaron Arculus
Set Construction: Andy Williamson
Fight Coordinator and Stage Crew: Michael Williamson
Stage Manager: Joanne Norman
Performers: Grant Evans, Howard Linscott, Craig Martin, Graeme Powell, Michael Serres, Nathan Simpson, Annette Stokes-Harris, Lisha Van Nieuwenhove
