![\"Winnie](\"https:\/\/media-doppleronline-ca.s3-accelerate.amazonaws.com\/2016\/08\/Winnie-Trainor-in-the-early-1900s-full.jpg\")
\u201cThis is a story about Winnie,\u201d says Nickalls. \u201cThat\u2019s the real local connection and it was so beautifully put together in Roy MacGregor\u2019s book. That\u2019s where I drew from.\u201d<\/p>\n
Nickalls says he enjoyed the research required even though writing the script was out of his comfort zone. He was reluctant to share the script with MacGregor \u2013 who will also make an appearance to read from Northern Light<\/em> \u2013 but needn\u2019t have worried. MacGregor\u2019s reaction was positive.<\/p>\n Nickalls was no stranger to the Tom Thomson story, however. He once acted in another Tom Thomson-themed play, The Shantyman\u2019s Daughter, <\/em>by local playwright Stina Nyquist, and says that she also inspired this script.<\/p>\n \u201cEveryone has their own thoughts on what really happened (to Tom Thomson),\u201d says Nickalls. \u201cWe don\u2019t actually say. And there are still those that believe they didn\u2019t have a relationship, but I believe it\u2019s a love story gone wrong and it stayed with her the rest of her life.\u201d<\/p>\n Nickalls believes both Winnie and Tom were somewhat outcasts in society \u2013 he for being an artist when other men were off at war and his brothers were successful businessmen, she for being 30 and unmarried. But in Algonquin Park, where Winnie\u2019s family had a cabin and where Tom painted, \u201cthere was no judgement. It was where they both found a certain comfort,\u201d says Nickalls.<\/p>\n It\u2019s a personal story, one that tries to capture the relationship between Winnie and Tom while staying true to the known facts and filling in the gaps where there are none.<\/p>\n \u201cWe aren\u2019t trying to tell the definitive history of Tom Thomson,\u201d notes Teri Souter, the Town\u2019s Manager of Arts, Culture and Heritage, who helped Nickalls come up with the idea for When Winnie Knew<\/em>. \u201cWe are trying to tell Tom\u2019s story in Huntsville and that\u2019s Winnie\u2019s story.\u201d<\/p>\n In MacGregor\u2019s feedback to Nickalls, he noted, \u201cThe Tom Thomson story is anyone\u2019s to play with as they see fit. No one knows the truth and no one ever will.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cWe are getting to the heart of the story,\u201d says Souter, \u201cbut we aren\u2019t taking ourselves seriously. We don\u2019t think we\u2019ve solved the crime of the century.\u201d<\/p>\n To find out how it plays out, you\u2019ll have to get a ticket for the show. There’s just one performance \u2013 a matinee on Sunday, July 16 at 2 p.m..<\/p>\n
![\"\"](\"https:\/\/media-doppleronline-ca.s3-accelerate.amazonaws.com\/2017\/07\/TOH_WhenWinnieKnew_doppler.jpg\")
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