Beloved P.E.I. musical 'Anne and Gilbert' set to make its first comeback

The famous music of Anne and Gilbert hasn’t hit the stage on the island since 2019, but a local festival is allowing it make a return.

The musical, based on the second and third books of Lucy Maud Montgomery’s Anne of Green Gables series, focuses on the love story between the precocious Anne Shirley and Gilbert Blythe.

“It’s very fitting that it should be held at the Florence Simmons performance hall in the Prince of Wales campus of Holland College,” said Gloria Hastie, theatre manager. "Because Lucy Maud Montgomery attended school here… and, actually, so did Anne and Gilbert."

The 61 performances are the centrepiece of the Island Theatre Festival.

Two other shows are already confirmed, and they’re looking for more, said Hastie.

"I think it’s a great signal,” said Campbell Webster, local business owner and show producer. "I mean one of the things that has been the cost of the pandemic is people coming together as a group to celebrate a single thing, or a single feeling, or a single emotional experience, which is what the theatre is."

The festival is another optimistic move by islanders ahead of the upcoming tourist season.

Now the island is gearing up for the first real tourism season since the COVID-19 pandemic began.

"We’re raring to go here," said Webster. "We’re a social group on balance, Prince Edward Island, and we welcome 1.2 million tourists each summer."

The festival opens with the first showing of Anne and Gilbert Saturday evening.