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by Norm Foster, directed by Liz Gilroy

Norm Foster Theatre Festival & Port Stanley Festival Theatre, Port Stanley Festival Theatre

June 17–July 4, 2026;

Mandeville Theatre, Ridley College, St. Catharines

July 11–26, 2026

Max: “I’ll be too upset from this weekend to relax next weekend. I don’t see any relaxing for at least three weekends”

The Norm Foster Theatre Festival and the Port Stanley Festival Theatre have joined forces to present Foster’s 1994 play The Long Weekend. Of Foster’s more than 80 plays, The Long Weekend is one of the most popular and on viewing the current production it is easy to see why. The play is packed with virtually every form of comedy from physical to verbal and it presents surprise after surprise until the very end. PSFT Artistic Director Liz Gilroy leads a top- notch ensemble in a detailed, fast-paced production.

The play begins with a premise that seems innocuous enough. Wynn Trueman has invited her best friend Abby Nash to see her new summer home. Besides that, Wynn, a psychologist, has written a book and wants to give Abby the first copy. Wynn’s husband Max has never liked Abby’s husband Roger and vice versa. Yet, Wynn and Abby’s friendship is so strong that the two couples see each other about once a month and even go on vacation together. Nevertheless, before they meet, each couple when alone predicts how the other couple will behave, Max and Roger dreading the encounter far more than Wynn and Abby, though even the women have their own criticisms of each other.

Its unabated satire of relationships makes The Long Weekend is quite different from most of Foster’s plays. None of the four characters is sympathetic or admirable. Foster needs only to get any two of the characters alone together for them to begin criticizing the two characters who are absent.

This depiction of the nasty side of human nature is funny itself, but what is even funnier is how the characters attempt to disguise their irritation or anger at the other through pretenses of friendship or affection. Wynn and Max may “love” each other, but Wynn can’t stand Max’s need to control everyday minutiae and Max can’t stand Wynn’s constant psychological analysis of everything he does. Abby and Roger may “love” each other but Abby is tired of Roger’s general weakness and Roger resents Abby’s success in business while he remains a failure as a screenwriter. Max and Roger don’t even bother to claim they like each other, while Abby doubts Wynn has taste in décor and Wynn has doubts Abby has taste in men.

Those who don’t know the play will assume that exposing this level of hypocrisy in human relationships will be Foster’s theme throughout the play. Foster, however, takes his exposure of hypocrisy to a higher level with the first big surprise of the play. As soon as Max and Abby are alone, we discover that they are madly in love with each other and want to divorce their spouses. There then ensues the hilarity of Max and Abby discussing how and when to break the news to their spouses even though they know how much it will hurt them.

I don’t want to reveal too much of what transpires since there are many more surprises in store. What is so deliciously amusing about the play is Foster’s characters’ use of self-interest as an excuse for deceiving others while unwittingly also deceiving themselves.

Costume designer Alex Amini has clearly expressed the characters’ personalities in their costumes. Max and Wynn are both very tidy — Max in beige pants and a tucked-in pastel polo shirt, Wynn in a tastefully short one-piece pleated dress. Roger and Abby are just the opposite — Roger apparently in whatever clothes came closest to hand and Abby in a granny dress with retro-hippie accoutrements. Beckie Morris’s handsome set for Max and Wynn’s “cottage” looks more like a primary residence from Architectural Digest.

Liz Gilroy has unerringly paced the dialogue so each remark comes out at it sharpest and most cutting. Gilroy leads a fine, experienced ensemble. Tyrone Savage, who plays Max, spent nine seasons at the Stratford Festival. Claire Jullien, who plays Abby, spent ten seasons at Stratford and sixteen at the Shaw Festival. Darren Keay, who plays Roger has starred in seven previous plays at the Foster Festival. And Caitlin Driscoll, who plays Wynn, is noted for numerous roles in television and in theatres across Ontario.

Savage plays Max as the character who reveals the least about himself. He makes Max’s OCD habits, neatness of dressing, precision of speech and easy sneer all signs of someone who is intent on controlling everything around him and the most secretive since, as he claims, Wynn constantly tries to analyze him. Driscoll plays Wynn as a person as nearly controlling as Max, except that Wynn is very concerned with preserving an outward impression of openness and friendliness, whereas Max can’t be bothered.

Roger, as played by Keay, is probably the character most audience members will sympathize with. Roger has given up a career teaching math to high school students to realize his dream of doing something more. This something has turned out to be only a half-written screenplay. He hates Max mostly because Max’s wealth and superior manner make him feels inferior, whereas he is very good at feeling inferior all on his own. Keay does not downplay Roger’s less likeable characteristics — his long-held grudges, his whinging, his impulse always to fear the worst — but we likely view Roger as the least hypocritical of the four “friends”.

Jullien is a hoot as Abby. Jullien shows that beneath all of Abby’s effusive lovey-doveyness lies a nastily critical point of view that she cannot successfully conceal. When her passion for Max is revealed, we see that the apparently guileless Abby is quite capable of the profoundest deceit.

Foster’s management of these four characters is masterful especially in the way that he has Act 2 server as a parodic mirror of Act 1. The Long Weekend is rightly considered one of Foster’s best plays. For anyone who has never seen a Foster play this would be a great place to start. For those familiar with his comedies, The Long Weekend will show you just how varied his work really is.

Christopher Hoile

Photos: Tyrone Savage as Max, Claire Jullien as Abby, Darren Keay as Roger and Caitlin Driscoll as Wynn; Claire Jullien as Abby, Caitlin Driscoll as Wynn, Darren Keay as Roger and Tyrone Savage as Max; Tyrone Savage as Max and Darren Keay as Roger. © 2026 Shutter Studios.

For tickets visit fosterfestival.com.