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The Last 1.5 Librarians North of Lethbridge
3.5 stars (out of 5)
Stage 19, Mill Creek Cafe, 9562 82 Ave.
When the apocalypse finally arrives, it’s unlikely that many people are going to concentrate on saving human knowledge when they could be digging in the rubble for Campbell’s soup tins.
Unless you’re Frankie, an earnest young person who lives in an optimistic bubble somewhere outside of Nanton. Or maybe it is Nanton, and we just can’t tell because all of the buildings have been leveled.
Frankie has established the Wasteland Public Library, which is basically a bookshelf full of surviving paperbacks and hardcover textbooks, along with hours worth of jam band music that they can’t listen to because she doesn’t have a music player.
Frankie needs help, and that’s where the cynical scavenger Jean comes in. Jean is an older ex-librarian, and while she scoffs at Frankie’s efforts she’s enticed by the prospect of free food and batteries. From there it’s a philosophical conflict, complete with musical interludes, between Frankie’s hopeful outlook and Jean’s bitter resignation.
The Last 1.5 Librarians North of Lethbridge is a light comedy with semi-dark undertones, the Peanuts gang reenacting A Canticle for Leibowitz.
A couple of winning performances by Karalee Adams (Frankie) and Courtney Swan (Jean) keep this agreeable effort motoring along. For their opening afternoon show there were still a few technical things to be sorted out, like the soundtrack overwhelming the performer’s singing, but the near capacity room stayed with them all the way.