“Choking the Butterfly.”Professor Lionel Walsh is directing a cast and crew of drama students and grads in the Canadian premiere of the Irish drama “Choking the Butterfly.”

Theatre team bringing play premiere to Windsor stage

UWindsor drama professor Lionel Walsh is teaming up with the school’s alumni and students to stage the Canadian premiere of the Irish drama Choking the Butterfly by James Johnson.

Drawing on his research into the acting technique of Michael Chekhov, Walsh is directing current drama student Ken Caughey and grads Christina Bryson and Michael Hogan in performances May 27 to 29 in the Garage Door Theatre, 1519 Wyandotte Street East.

“We are experimenting with exercises I created in Fantastic Realism in the Inspired Acting Lab, which was funded by an undergraduate research grant,” Walsh says.

The play follows teenaged conjoined twins, Betty and Barney, left to their own devices after an operation to separate them. Thrown out of the institution they grew up in, the two find themselves with a suitcase packed with bottles of milk and cash—the land of milk and money they dreamed of as children. Finally set free and equipped with all the money in the world, can the twins survive separately, yet stay together?

Find showtimes and ticket information on the event Facebook page. Additional performances follow in Toronto, June 9 to 19.