Jason Kenney’s Best Summer Ever is about to be scored by the Grindstone team

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Amid a global pandemic with a variant of the Delta on the rise, you could almost hear the collective eye scraping across the province as Prime Minister Jason Kenney boldly declared that 2021 would be the “Best Summer Ever.”

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And we all certainly, tragically, witnessed that questionable branding act unfold: Alberta reliably led the country in COVID-19 infection statistics, as the numbers inevitably continued an upward trend and, with it, the index. The prime minister’s approval rating fell to 22 percent in October. the lowest of all Canadian Prime Ministers.

A feeling of massive frustration and helplessness was, and clearly is, widespread. But after a series of hilarious and scathing parody videos of once frequent online updates from Premier Kenney and Dr. Deena Hinshaw, culminating in a real-time Christmas special last year, several of the minds The brightest at Grinsdtone Theater have turned this hideous backdrop into – what else – comedy theater.

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Specifically, as a musical, no less.

Beginning November 10 and most nights at 7 pm through November 21, Jason Kenney’s Hot Boy Summer the Musical musical will perform at Campus Saint-Jean in Bonnie Doon.

Directed by Byron Martin, who co-wrote the play with Simon Abbott, the premiere is played by Donovan Workun as its title character. He’s backed by Abby Vanderberghe as Deena Hinshaw, Stephanie Wolfe as Rachel Notley, and Malachi Wilkins as Justin Trudeau, who happens to be Notley’s boyfriend in this Kenney-centric summer college world.

“Everyone is in the summer semester at the University of Alberta,” explains Martin, “and Kenney just won the presidency of the student union. And he promises his fraternity the best party ever. “

Martin assures the public of a number of things, including fresh material.

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“We did 90 percent of the writing in the last six weeks; we turned this around in an incredibly fast amount of time,” he explains. “People are going to come and see basically a classic frat movie, so it’s kind of interesting because everything we wrote had to fit into that world.”

Rounding out the cast is Kathleen Sera, Mark Sinongco, Tire Banda, and Sarah Dowling playing various roles, including Tyler Shandro in the ’80s frat party song cycle about Kenney trying to throw this perfect party, despite scolding the opposition of his various abilities including, you know. , the terrestrial plague.

And speaking of which, proof of vaccination is absolutely required to enter.

Kenney is very much the hero of the play; Notley and Trudeau the villains.

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“It’s a pretty heavy satire,” says Martin. “It’s like this is the play that he wrote with War Room when he disappeared for all those weeks.”

When asked if he expects the prime minister to show up, Martin laughs: “I’m a little terrified that he will. I hope so. I don’t know, it depends on whether you have a sense of humor.

“I’m also nervous that Notley sees it, because we don’t really see her as a villain.

“Malika is as funny as Justin Trudeau, she’s been killing me. So what if you are a conservative who complains about Trudeau all the time like people I know? They are going to love it. “

Songs from the cycle include Kenney singing about a rodeo, Trudeau trying to lure Notley to Ottawa, and a theatrical version of former municipal affairs minister Tracy Allard singing a number called Aloha.

Tickets are $ 30, available at grindstonetheatre.ca, and keep an eye out for our review in the Journal next week.

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