Something new has been heard in the halls of Our Lady Seat of Wisdom Academy over these past few weeks: show tunes.  The Academy’s Don Bosco Drama Club, which has performed an impressive list of productions since it was formed in 2003, presented its first musical, the Tony Award-winning hit Oliver! last weekend.  It featured musical classics such as "Food, Glorious Food," "Where is Love?" "Consider Yourself," “Who Will Buy?” and "As Long As He Needs Me." Lionel Bart’s ever-popular Oliver! has become one of the most popular and longest running musicals of all time. The musical continued its popularity in the auditorium of Madawaska Valley District High School as the Don Bosco Drama Club gave three gripping performances of Oliver! to a delighted audience.

“Love...is an ever fixed mark that looks on tempests and is never shaken...” (Sonnet 116)

Shakespeare’s romance The Tempest portrayed a fantastical island where justice and forgiveness played out amidst the workings of magic, betrayal, and love. The beginning of the play found the sorcerer Prospero (Alex McCune), the rightful Duke of Milan, marooned with his daughter Miranda (Theresa Wilson) after being set adrift twelve years earlier by the duke’s ambitious brother. Shortly afterwards Prospero’s enemies were scattered on the island during a furious gale raised by the magician. Prospero’s spirit-servant Ariel (Sally Beresford) gracefully flitted about the stage, luring characters into her master’s plan. His other servant, the hideous monster Caliban (Jonathan Quist), burst into the scenes with furious rage. Justice and forgiveness triumphed in the end when Prospero’s enemies fell in his power, and the magician finally relinquished his arts.