'We all do need to laugh': Island Summer Review back for 2nd COVID-19 summer

For their ninth season and second COVID-19 summer, Prince Edward Island musical comedy duo Patrick Ledwell and Mark Haines are back for the Island Summer Review.

The annual summer show is a mix of music from Haines — playing the fiddle, piano, and electric and acoustic guitar — and comedy from Ledwell, who also plays a bit of bass guitar and trumpet.

"He's managed to drag me through a nine-year music lesson into accompaniment on just about every tune," Ledwell said about Haines. 

Ledwell said some people might wonder after nine years of the show, "what is there left to talk about here on the Island?"

"But I have to say that the Island is always an embarrassment of riches," Ledwell said.

The duo are ready to share all the big news that Islanders have been talking about over the past year.

"Whether that's enormous beets being found out in Bonshaw or a lack of mason jars," said Ledwell. "We're ready to blow the lid off the year here on P.E.I."

'The old normal'

"It was great to do something that felt like the old normal," Haines said about performing the show last year during the first summer of COVID-19.

Ledwell said he felt a lot of mixed emotions putting on the show last year.

"You're thankful and then you're feeling a bit of a loss of some normal patterns," Ledwell said.

Haines said last year the duo was able to mix some new material with highlights from their previous shows, which they'll do again for their 2021 season.

 "Last year's season was a great reminder of the original reasons for trying to connect with people through a show," Ledwell said. "Everyone wanted to be there and we wanted to be there too, and nothing else really mattered."

What to expect

Haines said there are some new tunes people can expect to hear in the show, including a Stompin' Tom Connors song "like you have never heard it."

"You got to imagine Stompin' Tom meets Frank Sinatra, and I know that's difficult, but that's why you're just going to have to come to the show to actually see it," Haines said.

Ledwell said he'll be telling some new P.E.I. stories, including the seal spotted on a Charlottetown sidewalk.

"It's very hard to apprehend a seal because there's not a lot of easy places to apprehend, and it's slippery," said Ledwell. "But Charlottetown police is perhaps used to dealing with people who are a little bit more malleable than usual early on a Saturday or Sunday morning."

Ledwell said hearing these stories that are "outside the normal a little bit in a year that's very much outside the normal" is "a good tonic for a time when we all do need to laugh."

The duo will perform the show at Harmony House theatre in Hunter River. Ledwell said the venue owners have been working hard to make visitors feel safe during the show with COVID-19 restrictions in place. 

Tickets are being sold in groups of four or six, with 50 patrons allowed to be seated all together in the theatre. 

The 2021 Island Summer Review will run from July 6 until Sept. 1, with shows Tuesday and Wednesday nights starting at 7:30 p.m. 

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