David Leyshon, director of the Secret Service, with the cast and creative teams at rehearsal, going over lines and movement with the actors. (L-R Lisa Norton, Cooper Bilton, Robbie Towns, David Leyshon, and Josephine Ho).
June 30, 2026
By: Don Kearney-Bourque, Marketing & Communications Manager
Lighthouse Festival
There is something irresistible about a spy story. The gadgets. The danger. The whispered conversations in dark corners. The coded messages. The sense that at any moment, someone might burst through a door, reveal a shocking secret, or order a martini with suspicious confidence.
But for David Leyshon, director of Lighthouse Festival’s world premiere production of Secret Service, the appeal of the genre has never been limited to the action alone. It is also the comedy that comes with it: the heightened stakes, the ridiculous disguises, the perfectly serious people finding themselves in perfectly unserious situations.
“I grew up loving James Bond,” says Leyshon. “Likely an unpopular opinion, but Timothy Dalton was the first Bond to really have an impact on me. The Living Daylights led me to Sean Connery, Roger Moore, and the entire Bond canon. I have always been drawn to the action and the adventure, but ever-present in the Bond franchise is humour – there is always a joke, something just a little absurd and silly to go along with the action.”
That balance between danger and delight sits at the heart of Secret Service, a brand-new comedy by Ephraim Ellis. Set inside Il Glorioso Buco, Toronto’s swankiest and most suspiciously well-staffed Italian restaurant, the play throws audiences into a world where international espionage collides with dinner service. There are spies in the kitchen, secrets on the menu, and one rookie waiter named Harry Marsden who has absolutely no idea what he has wandered into.
For Leyshon, that is precisely where the fun begins.
“The spy genre has always been fertile ground for comedy,” he says. “From Get Smart and The Pink Panther to Austin Powers and Johnny English, there is something endlessly entertaining about highly trained operatives finding themselves in completely ridiculous situations. Secret Service embraces that tradition while bringing its own distinctly Canadian sensibility to the stage. It is clever, contemporary, and wonderfully absurd.”
That distinctly Canadian sensibility is part of what makes the play feel so fresh. While the world of Secret Service borrows from the grand tradition of spy thrillers, it does so with a wink, a grin, and a deep affection for the absurd. The play is not simply spoofing the genre. It is revelling in it. It understands the rhythm of a good caper, the joy of a mistaken identity, and the sheer comic potential of people trying desperately to appear in control while everything around them falls apart.
And at Lighthouse Festival, audiences will be the very first to experience it.
A world premiere carries a special kind of electricity. Unlike a classic play or a familiar favourite, a new work arrives without a long performance history. There are no decades of audience reactions to lean on, no well-worn path through the story, no certainty about where the biggest laughs will land until people are actually in the room.
For Leyshon, that uncertainty is not intimidating. It is thrilling.
“Bringing a new play to life, being a part of a world premiere, is always exciting,” he says. “Before the first audience takes their seats, no one knows exactly how the journey will unfold. Every laugh, every surprise, and every moment of discovery belong to that audience alone. That’s part of what makes directing Ephraim Ellis’ Secret Service such a thrill.”
That sense of discovery has shaped the rehearsal process from the beginning. With a new comedy, the creative team is not only staging the story; they are helping discover its engine. Timing matters. Rhythm matters. The space between a line and a reaction can make all the difference. A pause can become a punchline. A look across the room can turn a simple exchange into a comic explosion.
In Secret Service, the pace is especially important. The play moves with the urgency of a spy mission and the chaos of a dinner rush. Characters are hiding things, chasing leads, covering tracks, and trying not to blow their cover, all while navigating the familiar pressures of restaurant life. It is a world of high stakes and low patience, where one wrong move could ruin a mission, a meal, or both.
“I hope you have as much fun watching this play as we had putting it together,” says Leyshon. “Ephraim has created a wildly inventive world in which the high stakes of international espionage meet the everyday chaos of restaurant life. The result is a fast-paced romp packed with danger, mistaken identities, unexpected twists, and an abundance of laughs.”
That phrase — “the everyday chaos of restaurant life” — is key. While the spy elements give the play its glamour and danger, the restaurant setting gives it an immediate comic familiarity. Anyone who has ever waited for a table, misheard an order, worked a shift, watched a server juggle too many plates, or wondered what exactly is happening behind a kitchen door will recognize the madness of the environment.
Now add spies.
Suddenly, every tray could be a threat. Every reservation could be a clue. Every accent could be suspicious. Every bottle of wine could be part of an international incident. The restaurant becomes a pressure cooker, not only for the characters, but for the comedy itself.
At the centre of that mayhem is Harry Marsden, the clueless waiter whose lack of awareness may be his greatest weapon. In a world of professional operatives, secret plots, and undercover schemes, Harry is a beautifully ordinary person dropped into extraordinary circumstances. The more seriously everyone else takes the mission, the funnier his confusion becomes.
That contrast is one of the great comic gifts of the play. Secret Service is not only about spies trying to save the day. It is about what happens when the polished world of espionage is interrupted by someone who does not know the rules, does not understand the danger, and may accidentally be better at surviving it than anyone expects.
For Lighthouse Festival audiences, the production promises a summer comedy full of surprises. It is a world premiere with big energy, sharp writing, and a gleefully ridiculous premise. It has the slickness of a spy thriller, the speed of a farce, and the warmth and wit that audiences have come to love from Lighthouse.
It is also a celebration of new Canadian theatre. By bringing Secret Service to the stage for the first time, Lighthouse continues its commitment to supporting fresh stories, new voices, and the kind of live theatre experience that can only happen once. The first audience will not be watching a reproduction of something audiences elsewhere have already discovered. They will be part of the beginning.
For Leyshon, that is part of the magic.
A world premiere asks everyone in the room — artists and audiences alike — to take the leap together. The cast discovers the play in rehearsal. The creative team builds the world from the ground up. The audience completes the equation, bringing the laughter, surprise, and energy that tell the show what it truly is.
With Secret Service, that leap comes with tuxedoed danger, suspicious dinner service, mistaken identities, international intrigue, and enough comic chaos to turn one very fancy Italian restaurant into the least discreet spy operation in Canada.
“On behalf of our entire cast and creative team, thank you for joining us for this world premiere,” says Leyshon. “We have had an incredible time bringing Secret Service to life, and we can’t wait to share the laughs with you.”
Secret Service is on stage this summer at Lighthouse Festival. Get your tickets now at lighthousetheatre.com or call the Box Office at 888-779-7703.
