Maid for a Musket. A Rollicking Good Time in Prescott
Photos courtesy of the Shakespeare on the Saint Lawrence theatre.
MAID FOR A MUSKET currently running in rep with HAMLET at the St. Lawrence Shakespeare Festival is, to quote director Ian Farthing, “a wonderfully silly mix of local history and Shakespeare.” Very loosely based on Shakespeare’s LOVE’S LABOURS LOST, playwright Lucia Frangione has set the play in Prescott itself during the war of 1812. As well as literary allusions from that period, she has used local figures and historic events to tie it together, including the British raid on Ogdensburg.
Basically the plot revolves around three British soldiers who swear off women and frivolity for a year in order to study the art of war and glory. Of course their vows immediately begin to crumble when the attractive American widow Farnum turns up with two eligible daughters in tow.
