As Leo Tolstoy once said, “All happy families resemble one another; every unhappy family is unhappy in its own way.” Every member of the MacTwatt Clan’s 10-year family reunion reveals unique unhappiness as they meet again after years apart in the Logger Legends, Liars and Lookers, the third in the Logger Bar-located series of plays written and directed by Michael Fields, owner of the establishment.
Fields’ Longshadr Productions is a production company he started in 2020, when he retired from Dell’Arte International. The name references the long shadows that are cast in the winter when the sun dips to the horizon behind the hill and the dark of the days become longer until the light of late spring.
Staged so the audience is up close to the actors in the Logger Bar, the hour-long performance of Logger Legends, Liars and Lookers was filled with great singing and song choices and funny and heart-tugging family stories that may be inspired by actual Logger Bar patrons (one family in particular) and Blue Lake history.
Sold-out shows ran through March 9, but a slideshow of photos from Logger Legends, Liars and Lookers is online at northcoastjournal.com.
The performance featured Cynthia Martels, Lily Rich, David Powell, Alex Blouin, William English III, Zera Starchild, Wilda Thompson and Shawn Wagner as members of the MacTwatt family, as well as Jeff Landen and Biscuit the bar dog. Live music was provided by talented band members Marla Joy, Tim Randles, Jeff Kelley and Mike LaBolle. The scenography was by Lynnie Horrigan and light design by Michael Foster.
Explaining the backstory for his Logger trilogy, Fields said. “One of my main inspirations is the late Irish playwright, J.B. Keane, who owned a pub in Cork, Ireland. He would listen to what happened and what was said in his bar, and then weave them into plays. One of his patrons said that he had ‘the best job ever. You write down what we say and then charge us to hear it.'” Fields continued, “Initially, Dublin critics said his work was ‘too provincial,’ until it became hugely popular. I believe that the local, well told, is universal in its human story. That is what we aspire to in this work.”
This article appears in 10 Foliies Anniversary.