Take a bungled bank raid, a destitute solicitor, a drunken judge, a bizarre escape, patent medicines and a winsome barmaid and what do you have? Love & Larceny is an entertaining new musical comedy specially conceived for performances by community theatre, drama schools, and high school productions, with the aim of providing fun family entertainment. The show is technically easy to produce and is more like traditional musicals, with some big, full-cast numbers along with a dash of rap and patter songs. The songs-nicely challenging but not tough-are spread out among the performers to enable many of them to have their moments of glory.

The show is a twist on the St. Alban's raid of 1864, five years before Jesse James' notorious robbery. Based on Donald Davison's book, Raise The Flag & Sound The Cannon, which deftly mixes fiction with facts about a little-known story of Canadian involvement in the American Civil War, Love & Larceny features a sparkling script by Roger de la Mare and memorable songs by Donald Patriquin and Graham Hardman.

Love & Larceny, originally named Chickasaw, was directed by Vesta Jorgensen in a very successful debut in October and November 2007 with Knowlton Players in Knowlton, near where much of the original drama played out a century-and-a-half ago, deep in Québec's beautiful Eastern Townships. The show photos on this Web site are of this production.

If you would like more information on this exciting new show or would like to know whom to contact about its public performance, click on the links to the left.

For a more detailed synopsis, please click here (PDF file, 68 kb)