Nothing Like a Whorehouse on Fire to Warm You Up!
Twilla MacLeod and Sue Huff in The Great Whorehouse Fire of 1921, Northern Light Theatre. Photo by Ian Jackson, Epic Photography. This past weekend I ventured back out for another theatre experience - this time I visited the Varscona Theatre to see Northern Light Theatre's production of The Great Whorehouse Fire of 1921 . Inspired by true events in Big Valley, Alberta the play (by Linda Wood Edwards) speculates on a friendship of sorts between Mrs. Hastings, the Madam of the Whorehouse (played with sparkling acidity by Sue Huff) and Mrs. Smith, a local woman who runs a home for unwed mothers (portrayed with delicate curiosity by Twilla MacLeod). I haven't seen either of the two actresses onstage before but they are terrific foils for each other ( well, I think I saw Huff in a directing project at U of A over 30 years ago when we both were students there - I can't remember what - but I do remember being a little in awe of this tiny person with the larger than life personali
