The Spirit of Aspy Bay takes place on a mountainside in Cape North, Cape Breton in 1976. A young man, Hugh, running from a local fight and his girlfriend at a dance, meets an older man, Murdock Dan MacDonald who is making a pilgrimage up the mountain. Hugh’s girlfriend, a local Cape Breton Newfoundlander lobster fisherwoman, finds Dan’s wife, who met Dan when she came to teach Gaelic children English. Past scenes of their lives are acted out and intertwined. The play includes 5 traditional songs, comedy, farce, melodrama and tragedy. It can be performed without music.
The play was commissioned by The North Highlands Community Museum through a commissioning grant from the dept of culture. The research was available through the museum. Professional music director Erin Costelo created musical scores for the segways and songs and co wrote and original song with playwright, Bev Brett.
8 performances in August 2006 with a local cast to sold out shows of mostly local audiences at the old United Church in Cape North which has become a performance venue. 8 performances in July 2007