Due to unforeseen circumstances, the Dewdney Players production of 'Cereal Offenders' has been postponed until February 2nd. Audience members will be refunded and can rebook their tickets on Showpass. 

An Okotokian's pandemic project will soon premier as the Dewdney Players' latest production.

Cereal Offenders, written and directed by Mark Huolt, revolves around a group of cereal mascots who have formed a support group.

The idea came to him during the early days of the pandemic, and though this kind of thing would usually be just a fleeting thought, Huolt says his mind was in a funny place.

"This is what a pandemic will do when you're trapped in your house for months on end, you'll have crazy ideas and you'll have time enough to act on them. During the lockdown I kind of got bored, we had a crazy conversation around the breakfast table, we were looking at a couple of these boxes, and the next thing you know an idea was formed. Under normal circumstances, I probably would've forgotten about it, but when you're trapped at home, you say 'let's run with this, let's see what happens,' and unfortunately, it happened."

The characters will definitely be familiar to the audience since they take inspiration from real mascots.

"We have a leprechaun, we've got a bunny rabbit, a really large famous tiger, a vampire who loves chocolate, we also have a navy captain, Captain Crispy, and a famous, slightly raunchy bear," says Huolt.

He played upon the vague sense of nostalgia most people will have for these characters, given that most people grew up watching but won't have the same kind of attachment they would to television or movies characters.

"The real story kind of came from the notion of 'what happened to these guys? What do you suppose they're doing now?' I wondered what might have happened to them after 50 years of struggle, 50 years of battling pirates or doing all these things. The thing really kind of took off."

He had initially intended it to be a one-act play, but the idea soon expanded into two acts.

The play lay dormant for a few months before Huolt brought it before the Dewdney Players board, who ultimately approved it to be produced.

This won't be Huolt's directorial debut, having co-directed Dewdney's previous production, I Take This Man.

Cereal Offenders premieres on Jan. 26 and will run for two weeks as opposed to the usual three, with ten shows in total.

 

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