Legend of Sleepy Hollow comes to life Wednesday at Irish Harp

Without looking it up on Wikipedia or some other source, can you name a character from the classic spooky tale The Legend of Sleepy Hollow other than Ichabod Crane or the headless horseman?

Stumped? 

That won’t be the case for anyone lucky enough to experience Lezlie Wade’s unique reading of the Washington Irving tale set in the 1790s and first published in 1820. The second of two sold-out events happens on Wednesday, October 30 at 7:30 p.m.

The stage and film director, writer and lyricist shifts the story to tell it from the perspective of  Katrina Van Tassel, the love interest of both Crane and his competitor for her affections, Abraham Van Brunt. 

“I first did a version of the story in the off-season many years ago for (Port Colborne’s) Showboat Theatre,” says Wade. “I felt it was time to rediscover the story. I wanted to look at it through her viewpoint of the rivalry between the two men. What is that triangle all about?”

The story takes place in a Dutch settlement after the American Revolutionary War. In Irving’s tale, Katrina hails from a wealthy Dutch family and is described as “famed, not merely for her beauty, but her vast expectations.”

“A lot of young men were killed in that war,” says Wade. “There’s not a lot of them around. But marriage is inevitable for her. Her chance to find the right partner so that she can live the way she wants is extremely limited. She is clever enough to know that to secure the one she wants she will have to play a bit of a game. That’s what gets the story rolling.”

Wade lauds Irving’s short tale for its rich and imaginative language but isn’t at all afraid to rework the writer’s words to shed light on Katrina’s thoughts, feelings and motives. It’s a skill she learned while studying theatre at George Brown College.

“I love reading and I love storytelling,” Wade says. “I was lucky to be in Dorothy Ward’s class there. She had us do exactly this, take existing stories and rewrite them from a different perspective into one-man or one-woman plays. It provides artists an opportunity to be creative.”

The Niagara-on-the-Lake resident adds that she sees some parallels between the setting of the story that became a Disney animated film in 1949 and the town she calls home. 

“Tarry Town is along the Hudson River,” she explains. “It has a feeling very much like Niagara-on-the-Lake, sitting on the Niagara River. And Fort Niagara (across the U.S. border) has its own headless soldier ghost story. I can see how the story can be appreciated by people here.”

Wade is speaking to The Local having recently disembarked back in Niagara from a train along that very same Hudson River. She was in New York City for the performance at the National Association of Asian Performers of a story she wrote long ago. 

She has worked closely with Andorlie Hillstrom and the Yellow Door Theatre Program in the past and in the summer of 2023 she directed Monty Python’s Spamalot at the Stratford Festival.

“It was the second-longest running show in the festival’s history,” says Wade. “I didn’t expect that at all. I think people really needed a laugh after COVID. It just captured the zeitgeist and it even earned Eric Idle’s stamp of approval.”

So much so that the 81-year-old British comedian, actor, author and playwright invited her to the play’s Broadway opening as her guest last year. He continues to correspond with Wade via email and will even pick up the phone to call her from time to time.

“It’s a bit surreal,” she laughs. “But he’s a really lovely person.”

Wade will also be busy workshopping her new original musical called The Tale of the Gifted Prince in November before heading to the U.K. on December 3 where she and collaborator Daniel Green are up for the Stiles and Drewe Best New Song Prize.

Three days later she’ll be back at the Irish Harp for a reading of “Charles Dicken’s other Christmas story called The Chimes.” 

Wade is thankful for the support that Jovie Joki, owner of The Irish Harp, has given her for all three of her readings at the popular local pub. 

“The Irish Harp is doing some really cool things, a mix of music and storytelling,” Wade enthuses. “It seems to be quite popular there and everyone seems to be enjoying them. It says a lot about their customer base and about Jovie, too.”