Parrsboro

Had I not been planning on meeting Jen Clarke for an evening of theater in Parrsboro, I doubt very much it would have been on my itinerary. And that would have been a shame! This time town has a huge variety of things. It started with a wonderful little hostel, the Mad Hatter. While at first a little uncomfortable because I entered through the owners’ kitchen, I came quickly to love the place and the wonderful proprietress. The bed was comfortable and I got a full nights sleep for the first time in some days.

Then came the food. A new restaurant had been opened that week by the owner of the local high end B&B. Jen’s lunch was very good so we tried dinner. Blackened Halibut. With lobster.Wow!

After dinner was a wonderful production of the play, “Diligent River Daughter,” based on a novel set in Parrsboro. The production was terrific and the space quite unique. The stage was triangular and at ground level with seating angling up and away. I’m not a theater critic, but I found the shape allowed the director to easily change the impact of a scene by moving it on the stage. By having the stage on the ground, there wasn’t a physical delineation between the actors and the audience. This was a new stage (about 2006) and had to be unique to replace the old one which was literally the working deck of a boat that was dragged up to the site! The boat is still there and has been incorporated into the covered space outside the theater.

The Ship’s Company Theatre

The next day was a busy one. I drove to the visitors’ center for Force, an organization helping develop tidal power. They provide the space and infrastructure so developers can focus on turbine design. The first experiment in 2009, a run of the river turbine, only lasted a few tide cycles before being destroyed by the currents! There was not much to see at the center, as the 4 new developers are still in the planning stage, but it will be interesting to watch over the next years. For more information, go to http://fundyforce.ca/.

There was also a Geology Museum and I did wander through. I’m afraid by the time I did, my brain was pretty full! There was a wonderful animation of the movement of land masses on earth over its lifetime. Very interesting! Several times Parrsboro was very close to Morocco! Who knew?