Hitting the Road with Heart: Playwright Barb Scheffler’s The Beaver Club Drives Comedy, Friendship, and a Very Canadian Journey

April 17, 2026

Lighthouse Festival

By Don Kearney-Bourque, Marketing & Communications Manager

There are many ways a play can begin. A line of dialogue. A character voice that won’t leave you alone. A question that nags until it becomes a story. In the case of The Beaver Club, the journey began, fittingly enough, with a long stretch of being stuck in one place.

For Canadian playwright Barb Scheffler, the spark came during the early days of the pandemic. Like so many artists, she suddenly found herself grounded, her touring schedule halted mid-stride. “I was about to start a tour with Menopause the Musical when everything shut down,” she recalls. “We had to go home… and after staring at the walls for a while, I needed something to do.”

That “something” turned into everything.

Scheffler joined an online collective of women writers, an aptly named group called Act Three, and began flexing her creative muscles again. Around the same time, she participated in a Zoom reading of an American play featuring four women from across the United States. It was, perhaps, the final nudge she needed.

“I remember thinking out loud, ‘Why aren’t we doing Canadian plays about Canadian women?’” she says. “And then I made the mistake, or maybe the promise, of saying I could probably write something funnier.”

Her fellow writers called her bluff.

“So I did.”

What followed was the first draft of The Beaver Club, a play that would grow into a hilarious, heartfelt, and unmistakably Canadian road trip comedy – one that now kicks off Lighthouse Festival’s 2026 season.

Not Your Classic Comedy Setup

At first glance, The Beaver Club might look like a classic comedy setup: four women pile into a car and head off on a cross-country adventure from Toronto to Dildo, Newfoundland. There are snacks (questionable), pit stops (unpredictable), and conversations (unfiltered). But beneath the laughs lies a question that gives the play its emotional engine.

“What’s next?”

Or, as Scheffler puts it: “Where am I going now?”

Each of the women in The Beaver Club is navigating a turning point. Life, as it has a habit of doing, has shifted—sometimes gently, sometimes not. And while the journey across Canada provides the backdrop, the real movement is happening internally.

“They’re all trying to figure out who they are at this stage in their lives,” Scheffler explains. “And in many ways, their biggest obstacle is themselves.”

Which, as anyone who has ever taken a road trip with friends or family can attest, is both deeply relatable and highly combustible.

Strong Personalities & Real-Life Solutions

Writing an ensemble of strong personalities is no small feat, and Scheffler admits that one character in particular proved especially tricky: Radiance.

“Radiance is a free spirit,” she says. “She doesn’t seem to have a care in the world. And that’s fun, but dramatically, it’s a problem. You need to give her something at stake.”

The solution came from real life. A story shared by a friend about an older sister unexpectedly being offered a place in a seniors’ home, an offer that landed more like a disruption than a gift, gave Scheffler the thread she needed to ground Radiance’s journey in something deeper.

It’s a perfect example of how The Beaver Club balances its tone. For every laugh-out-loud moment, there’s a flicker of recognition. For every absurd roadside anecdote, there’s a truth that lands just a little closer to home.

And there were, apparently, many more anecdotes where those came from.

“I had to cut a lot of stories about Radiance randomly bumping into famous people,” Scheffler admits. “Which was heartbreaking, honestly.”

But fans of the play need not worry. Those stories may yet see the light of day.

“I’m writing a sequel,” she adds, “where the women travel west. So I can bring some of those moments back.”

The road, it seems, continues.

Deep Connection & Authenticity

Scheffler’s connection to the material runs deep. Before turning her focus to writing, she spent years touring across Canada as a performer—often, as it happens, in cars filled with other women.

“You spend hours together,” she says. “Talking about your lives, driving each other a little crazy, and laughing – a lot. That dynamic really stayed with me.”

It’s that lived-in authenticity that gives The Beaver Club its warmth. The characters don’t feel invented so much as remembered, drawn not just from Scheffler’s own experiences, but from the stories shared by the women around her.

“I’m incredibly grateful to all the women who have trusted me with their stories,” she says.

That gratitude shows up in the writing, particularly in Scheffler’s ongoing commitment to creating complex, layered female characters, especially older women, who are too often sidelined or simplified on stage.

“We have so many interesting stories to tell,” she says. “And I think audiences are ready for them.”

O, Canada!

Of course, no road trip is complete without a sense of place, and The Beaver Club proudly wears its Canadian identity.

“This play is really a love letter to Canada,” Scheffler says. “All of the places the women visit are real, and I paid close attention to geography to make sure it all made sense.”

That attention to detail pays off, grounding the comedy in a recognizably Canadian landscape. For some of the characters, revisiting certain locations becomes a form of catharsis – a way of processing the past while navigating the present.

And for audiences? It might just spark a little wanderlust.

“I’ve been to almost all the places mentioned in the play,” Scheffler adds. “And I highly recommend taking your own Beaver Club tour.”

Consider it both a theatrical experience and a travel suggestion.

But is it Finished?

As with any creative work, knowing when to stop can be one of the hardest parts. For Scheffler, finishing a script is less a decisive moment and more a gradual surrender.

“I always feel like I could make it better,” she admits. “Even after two productions of The Beaver Club, I was still making small tweaks.”

But at a certain point, you have to let the play live its own life.

“I think I can finally say I’m happy with it now,” she says—with just enough hesitation to suggest she might still change a line or two if given the chance

So what does she hope audiences take away from the experience?

Laughter, certainly. Recognition, ideally. And maybe, on the drive home, a conversation or two.

“I love when people tell me which character they identify with,” Scheffler says. “That’s always so interesting to hear.”

More than anything, though, she hopes the play leaves audiences with a sense of connection.

“That we’re better off when we support each other,” she says. “That’s really at the heart of it.”

It’s a simple idea. But like the best road trips and the best comedies, it’s the kind that stays with you long after the journey ends.

The Beaver Club plays on the Lighthouse Theatre stage in Port Dover from May 27 to June 13 and at Roselawn Theatre in Port Colborne from June 17 to 28. For tickets, click the link below or call the box office at 888-779-7703.