Mystery and lore: A new Sudbury production explores what ever happened to A.Y. Jackson's missing painting

Shortly after his death, Group of Seven artist A.Y. Jackson's painting Spring on the Onaping River vanished.

At the time it went missing, in 1974, the painting had been hanging at Sudbury Secondary School and was worth about $15,000. You can probably imagine that today, it would be worth much more.

Now, plans are in motion to explore the mysterious incident and what could have happened to the painting, in a production called The Case of the Missing A.Y. Jackson. 

The production also proposes the possibility that more than one A.Y. Jackson painting was whisked away that night, through four different possible scenarios. 

'A hyper local production'

"You get all the very best theories on what happened," said Judi Straughn, who directed and wrote the screenplay for the piece. 

"This story was waiting to be told."

Straughn said the production is doubling as a fundraiser for the Laurentian University campus radio station CKLU. 

"It's a hyper local production, it has 15 local actors," she said, "So that's always fun to see a community come together and have a mix of professional actors and amateur actors." 

We just knew this was never going to happen unless we figured out how to stream it.— Judi Straughn, director

But Straughn's initial vision of the play had to be reimagined as COVID-19 took hold. Now, to take in the show, people will have to purchase tickets to stream the production from their homes. 

"Little did any of us know, we were all set to stage it at the Sudbury Theatre Centre," she said, "Everything was set, the cast was in place since last January," she said. 

"We just knew this was never going to happen unless we figured out how to stream it." 

'We have a really fine product'

Straughn said she even had to rewrite parts of the script so that there wouldn't be any more than three cast members on stage at one time, to ensure physical distancing. 

While the final product, which has been filmed and edited down, is a little different then what she had first intended Straughn said, "We have a really fine product, I must say." 

People can watch the production beginning Dec. 4th until Dec. 7th. To purchase tickets, folks can head to the university's radio station website.

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