Anne of Green Gables: The Musical is fresh and captivating

When Gilbert Blythe yanks Anne Shirley’s pigtail and starts teasing her about the carrot colour, theatre patrons sense something dramatic is about to happen.

And it does. Anne picks up the nearest school slate and smashes it on Gilbert’s head, breaking the writing tablet into numerous pieces.

In Festival Players newly minted production of Anne of Green Gables: The Musical now at Festival Place until Dec. 30, the quick-tempered, fiery orphan has barely settled at Green Gables farm before pandemonium ensues.

But she can’t help it. It’s all part of her chattiness, her vivacious personality, her vivid imagination and hyper-developed sense of romance and drama.

When we first meet 12-year-old Anne Shirley, beautifully captured by Liana Forss, she is the only person left at a train station. With one hand Anne grips an old bag filled with her meagre possessions and with the other she clutches her straw hat.

Anne was orphaned at three months and she’s waiting for a ride to her new home, one she hopes will be permanent. Quiet, sensible Matthew Cuthbert (Bob Klakowich), an older farmer who lives with his spinster sister, Marilla, arrives to pick up the orphan.

But instead of meeting a boy that was requested to help him with farm chores, he finds Anne. Immediately smitten by Anne’s youthful exuberance, Matthew takes her home, muttering about what his sister will say.

And the harder-edged Marilla (Lucy Haines) says plenty. After venting in the signature song, We Clearly Requested a Boy, Marilla’s crustiness slowly disappears as she takes on the role of a caring mother.

Anne is truly a one-of-a-kind character and Forss embodies Anne completely. Her voice is pure and sweet and Anne’s high-voltage drama-queen personality comes through with just the right element of comedy and sincerity.

But mostly she captures the beating heart of a young homeless girl desperate to plant roots and belong to a family and a community of friends.

Her verbal sparring with Marilla is a copy of true-to-life mother-daughter exchanges. Through their discussions and arguments, Haines’ Marilla softens and allows the love she feels for Anne to pierce her armour in a way that is completely natural.

Klakowich’s Matthew is more than a soft, tranquil foil to Marilla’s crustiness. He is a wise peacemaker, an anchor who keeps both women in his life grounded.

Diana Barry, Anne’s new-found best friend, as played by Kate Tambasco, has a wholesome aura about her leading to a highly comedic boozy moment when she accidentally knocks back several glasses of Marilla’s black currant wine.

And Thomas Oldreive Gilbert is a combination of rural country boy and aspiring scholar. He flirts with Anne and those attempts are often met with a ferocious independence that is best highlighted in their duelling duet I’ll Show Him.

In addition to the sparkling performances, all the theatrical elements fit together seamlessly: Brian Bast’s stylized set design, Kelly Marsh’s period costumes, Shelley Tookey’s choreography that brought the best out of each actor, and Michael Clark’s superb 16-piece live band.

Lucy Maud Montgomery’s cherished 1908 novel Anne of Green Gables was one of the first truly Canadian novels that epitomized turn-of-the-century life in Prince Edward Island.

At the mention of Anne, everyone immediately connects her with Canada’s island province. Yet in director Dawn Sadoway’s production, the island’s moist salty air is gone.

Sadoway has successfully transformed this quintessential East Coast narrative into one that could just as easily fit any Alberta small rural town. You can almost feel the prairie wind and dry dust under your fingernails.

Anne and Diana sing a tune titled Kindred Spirits and Sadoway’s interpretation gives the song a new significance of what it means to be Canadian.