by John Gray
Stage Door Guest Review by Jonathan Harrison

Wanna meet something that drinks more gas than your family ATV?

Take a drive up Highway #6 to Fergus’ Theatre on The Grand and catch the show that opened there last week. There’s a truck on the stage that’ll frighten the hell out of your gas card. An old White truck. Its there for John Gray’s 18 Wheels.

Written in 1976 when gas first hit the dollar a gallon mark, 18 Wheels is a musical salute to some of Canada’a finest, our long distance truck drivers. The show follows that silly euphoric exuberance shared by all truck drivers who start off small, working for someone else, but whose dream is to own their very own rig.

18 Wheels will no doubt cover some familiar territory. There are vivid descriptions of the miles of Ontario forest land, then the flat, endless prairie and then the mountains with their twisted, tortuous roads where a missed gear change or a "blow out in the front" will find you rusting dead in your rig at the bottom of the canyon ‘cause there ain’t no way of gettin’ you out.

18 Wheels is a musical that leans toward country with a little bit of gospel thrown in. Also there is the poetic skill of a modern-day Robert W. Service. The second act in particular reads like a shaggy dog tale with poetry, drama and song all hauling together in the same big rig.

I applauded the coffee shop scene which takes up a large part of the first act. There, two dead tired drivers, Lloyd (Sam Owen) and Jim (Carmelo Iachelli) gather to eat a believably improbable ice cream sundae. But its not the food that makes the Hollywood Grill so attractive, its the waitress . . . . "Her name is Sadie, a hell of a lady, She’s the star of the Hollywood Grill".

But Sadie’s tale is a sad one. She (Kim Shulze) started out down East, pure and hopeful, hopped a ride to Toronto and finished up sullied, sad, but tough as nails, at this Alberta truck stop, the Hollywood Grill. This is in strong contrast to Molly, the other woman in the show. Molly (Lisa Horner) is no one’s victim. While her husband is away haulin’ she, in a wonderfully poetic display of Gray’s imagination, "met a man with a pencil moustache" and fell in love. She manages to mend her marriage when her husband finds out, and he teaches her to drive a rig. And, wouldn’t cha know it? The gal’s a natural. She goes haulin’ with hubby until a shiny American rig takes her fancy and she goes haulin clear across the Good ‘Ol U.S. of A with her husband bobtailin’ around trying to catch her again. Too late.

Director Christopher McHarge has managed to put together an entertaining show which will please most who see it. McHarge was part of the design team which also included Greg Bride, Lyle Franklin and Eric Goudie. I don’t know if they built a truck or bought one but it sure does look good on the Fergus stage.

Under the musical direction of Colin Stewart (bass guitar), the band of John Kenny, guitar, Aaron W MacDonald, saxaphone, Don Reid, drums, with Scott McCutcheaon and David Testolin all do a fine job of delivering the goods.

So put the hammer down, good buddy, and take a trip to see the 18 wheeler playing at Fergus Theatre on the Grand till Aug 28th . . . . For Arts’ Sake.