A ‘whodunit’ to support Resilience Montreal’s new day centre kitchen

The curtains go up this week for Agatha Christie’s “Appointment with Death,” a play put on by the Montreal West and NDG Rotary Club’s Younker’s Little Theatre Troupe.

Director Doug Floen promises to entertain and to keep the audience guessing.

“By doing this and contributing to, the community and to charity it’s a great, it’s a great feeling,” said Floen. “This is our fourth play and pretty well the same people have stuck with it.

Past performances have raised $1,200. The fundraising is part of a $100,000 donation the Rotary Club is making towards Resilience Montreal’s kitchen at their new location on Atwater Avenue, set to open in December of 2025. 

Mark Watson, an actor in the play says, “Like most Agatha Christie mysteries, there’s a, a large range of, eccentric characters who are all thrust together by circumstance, and, one of them dies, and of course there’s plenty of clues to implicate just about everybody and you have to wait until the end to figure out whodunit.”

“I work in Westmount, so it’s a, it’s a residence for the unhoused that that is close to where I work, and so it’s part of that community that I’m that I’m a part of. And to raise money for that is especially meaningful,” said Watson.

“I think it’s always really wonderful when the arts can, um, contribute back to the community in a meaningful way,” said Devon LeBlanc, an actor in the play.

“To have something creative and enjoyable, um, be transformed into something that can really make a, a significant impact on people’s lives is, it’s great to be a part of,” said LeBlanc.

Founder of Resilience Montreal NaKuset says they need this help, especially as more and more services are being cut.

“I hope they raise a lot of money,” said Na’kuset. “There’s a lot of services that are being cut… and then the issue is that more and more people end up at resilience, so [Resilience] wants to continue helping and supporting the population, but we need help.”

Rotary Club president Ron D’Souza says that they’re almost sold out, but that some tickets are still available for Saturday. The show runs from January 16 to 18, at Saint Philips’s Anglican Church. Tickets cost between $25 and $30 dollars.