IWestern edge opens season with Matt & Ben.

They’re the funniest male duo since Felix and Oscar.

It’s Matt and Ben, the comedy which opens the new season from Western Edge Theatre.

“It’s a send up of young males and young male actors,” said Frank Moher, artistic director.

The play is based on actors Matt Damon and Ben Affleck, who have their Oscar-winning screenplay, Good Will Hunting, fall from the ceiling.

How they deal with the ensuing fame is the subject of the comedic play.

Directed by Eliza Gardiner, the satirical play is about young people on the verge of their adult lives making good and bad choices.

“Just because they become famous is not their fault,” Moher said. “That Ben isn’t a very good actor isn’t really his fault.”

Matt and Ben are played by Emily Smythe and Carolyn Westberg, respectively.

“It was written by two women to be performed by two women.”

Matt and Ben opens Friday and Saturday (Oct. 16-17), 7:30 p.m., at the Surf Lodge on Gabriola before moving to Nanaimo Entertainment Centre Oct. 23-24, 7:30 p.m., and Oct. 25 at 2 p.m.

Western Edge’s goal is to produce plays in Nanaimo which, while they may not be widely known about, are very successful in other theatrical venues. Another goal is to get a younger audience attending theatre regularly by producing plays like Matt and Ben or last season’s sold-out Hedwig and the Angry Inch and keeping ticket prices low.

“I’d like to build on that,” Moher said. “You don’t want people waiting to come to theatre until they’re in their 50s.”

The comedy continues in the rest of the 2009-10 season with Western Edge’s second play The Goat by playwright Edward Albee. The play, which premiered at the Gabriola Theatre Festival in August, looks at the limits of tolerance and the strangeness of attraction – the main character falls in love with a goat.

“It really got people talking,” Moher said.

In January, Western Edge premieres Fireweed, written by Cedar’s Brian March, a comedy-drama about a mutt rescued from the pound who teaches his new owner, a widowed botanist, a few new tricks.

“We make a point to try and premiere a new play each season,” Moher said. “This is one of the strongest we’ve ever premiered.”

The final play of the season, Copper Thunderbird, is a technically complex play about the life of artist Norval Morrisseau, who spent the last few years of his life in Nanaimo.

“It’s very visually interesting, which befits a play about an artist,” Moher said.

The play, written by Galiano Island’s Marie Clements, is somewhat controversial for its warts-and-all portrayal of the treasured Canadian artist. Accompanying the play’s run in March will be an exhibition of contemporary First Nations artists.

To encourage audiences to support local theatre in the wake of arts and culture funding cuts from the provincial government, Western Edge is offering a 20-per cent discount for full subscriptions to the 2009-10 season. All four plays are available for $32.

To purchase a subscription, or for single tickets, please visit www.westernedge.org or call 250-325-7777.

arts@nanaimobulletin.com