By Liz Nicholls, 12thnight.ca

If you’re excited to see the much-anticipated premiere of the new Nicole Moeller crime caper Wildcat at Workshop West Playwrights Theatre, which was to have opened tonight, you’ll have to wait a bit longer. The production’s opening weekend at the Gateway Theatre has been cancelled, and opening night has been delayed till Wednesday.

A major breach of technical security at the theatre, unprecedented and as yet unexplained, has resulted in “malfunctions of all the technical equipment,” says Workshop West artistic producer Heather Inglis. Lighting, sound … all systems have been compromised in this “perplexing and mysterious” crisis, says Inglis.

“Plays are a lot of work; theatre equipment is expensive,” as Inglis says. “We’ve tried to outfit this space for the community to use, as well. To have a flexible black box theatre indie producers can work with…. I’ve been an indie producer myself. Now we’ve got to find the funds to replace gear.”

Meanwhile, as Inglis describes, the cast (Michele Fleiger, Maralyn Ryan, Melissa Thingelstad, Graham Mothersill) have rallied, and the technical team led by Jen Magel, the crew, and stage management have worked tirelessly to resolve the damaging issues and restore the technical functions needed to get Wildcat onto the stage in a few days. “We’ve been accessing the Edmonton technical theatre community. And they’ve been very generous with their expertise.”

“We’re working our way through it. And we will persevere!” says Inglis. “We’re looking forward to seeing everybody next week.”

Wildcat runs at the Gateway Theatre, 8529 Gateway Blvd. Oct. 29 through Nov. 9. Tickets (all pay-what-you-will): workshopwest.org.  Workshop West is individually contacting ticket-holders affected by cancelled weekend performances. Further information: 780-477-4944, workshopwest.org.