“I’m in my bliss. Summer theatre is the happiest place in the world for me.”
Actor and writer Lindsey Middleton is discussing her work with County Stage Company, where she is currently appearing in Flowers by Deborah Porter. The play is inspired by the real story of Canada’s most tragic child celebrities: the Dionne quintuplets, who were born in 1934 in northern Ontario, and became a worldwide sensation.
Running until August 16, 2025 at Mount Tabor Playhouse, Flowers follows the life of a woman whose life is upended by the birth of five identical daughters and explores how, years later, those daughters — now women — reunite to reflect on their shared identity. Through joy, tragedy, and public scrutiny, Flowers interrogates the paradoxical question: Can five truly be one?
Playing – and becoming – sisters
Middleton plays Therèse, one of the five daughters. And the role and the experience have deepened her perspective, filled her summer cup, and in “a little bit of art and life coming together”, expanded her sense both of sisterhood and self. The other four sisters are played by a powerhouse quartet of Susan Del Mei (Adele), Madison Hayes-Crook (Mariette), Breanna Maloney (Sylvie), and Kait Post (Josée). And the bond that has grown among them, Middleton explains, is genuine: “Funnily enough, of the five women in the show, none of us have sisters in real life, as we’ve discovered in rehearsal. So we’ve all come together and we now are each other’s sisters, both on stage and off.”
Before joining the production, she had never heard of the real-life Dionnes: “Since being cast in the show, I find when I talk about it with folks, they either have never heard of it, or they know everything. There’s never an in between.“ “I was in the ‘news to them’ camp”, she continues, and so she immersed herself in research, discovering the real-life tragedy beneath the headlines: “It’s a heartbreaking story about little girls who were born and very much saved by the Red Cross… The first quintuplets to ever live into their adult lives. And the only identical quintuplets in the world. There is a one in 52 million chance that you will give birth to quintuplets. So it’s a very rare, unique thing that happened in our own backyard here in Ontario.”
Therèse, the sister Middleton portrays, died from a blood clot in her brain when she was 35 years old. “I will be 35 next year, actually,” she notes. “To only get that far in your life is quite tragic… I try to just honour that and look at it with an empathetic lens of what it would really feel like to go through this experience.”
The original social media influencers
While the play is grounded in a historical moment, its themes feel startlingly contemporary.
“Something we’ve spoken about in rehearsal is this idea that the Dionnes were kind of the first original influencers – but not by choice. It was thrust upon them.” Middleton draws a straight line from the exploitation of the Dionnes to today’s social media culture: parents who “put their children on social media before they are an age to understand what they’re doing, and generate income and brand deals from them. Well, history repeats itself. It really does.”
So Middleton expects Flowers to strike an immediate chord with audiences, especially in the way it holds up a mirror to modern-day child stardom and performative identity: “We’re approaching 100 years since this happened… and kids are still being put on display for profit—maybe not necessarily by a government, instead by parents.” She describes ”a haunting lens” that turns back on the viewer: “It’s something I’ve reflected on… It’s definitely a show that’s made me re-examine a lot of values in our society now.”
Flowers doesn’t shy away from the relentlessness of these dark truths. “Every day, there was a photographer who came and took [the quintuplets’] picture,” she notes. “Every morning, these babies turned toddlers turned children were woken up to have their hair curled at 6:00 am… They were curated. In certain clothes. And they were curated to play things. There’s a haunting video of them performing God Save the Queen, which is also part of the show. And they just look miserable during it.”
On a roll now, Middleton unspools more of the head-shaking facts of the quintuplets’ reality show-like lives: “They lived in a hospital observation setting, behind a one-way glass… So they could hear all these people murmuring and coughing and laughing and looking at them, but they couldn’t see them.” And economic motivations were the ultimate driver, she notes, asserting that “the Dionne quintuplets brought Ontario out of the Great Depression by the amount of money they generated”.
From Flowers to Snow White
The production, directed by County Playhouse’s Artistic Director Heather Braaten, leans into the surreal tensions of the story. “Heather… is incredible,” declares Middleton. “We’re exploring so much movement and stylization of what it means to be “one” [unit] – and then throughout the show, you see that start to shatter. They each are trying to figure out who they are as individuals – some more successfully than others.”
Dynamic – and “very fun” – “character switching” also expands the storytelling. “I actually play the quintuplets’ father as well,” she notes. “And we each all play a nurse or a doctor”, thereby bringing to life “all these different elements and people that surrounded” the sisters. And playing these other various exploiters provides emotional fuel for MIddleton: “there’s just such a sense in me of rage, of powerlessness… It’s just not fair. It’s not right.”
And when she’s not on stage in Flowers, Middleton is bringing a very different kind of magic to the County Stage in Snow White, which runs until August 17 at The Eddie Pavilion Outdoor Stage. In Greg Banks’ inventive two-hander, Middleton stars alongside Breanna Maloney: between them, they portray Snow White, the huntsman, the prince, and all seven dwarves!
“To be quite honest with you, when we first read in rehearsal… I thought, ‘this is going to be the most fun I’ve ever had on stage,’” Middleton laughs. ”You’re rapidly switching characters over and over – using 14 different voices, 14 different physicalities. Then there’s audience interaction. There’s kids. It’s just so fun and explorative.” And she very much appreciates how this “fresh retelling of Snow White” reimagines the classic friendship between Snow White and the dwarves, and examines closely why they are friends.
The experience of playing in two such contrasting productions is what leaves her feeling “really grateful… No wonder I’m smiling from ear to ear! Though one is much more dark and one is much more light, I’m still surrounded in the same coziness of love and celebration of bringing people together.”
Overall, County Stage’s current chapter under Braaten’s vision and leadership as a repertory company has left a powerful impression on Middleton: “Heather has really wanted to make art in the County, for the County, and I just really admire that about her and bringing in more arts culture here… It’s made me look at my own career trajectory and go, ‘Oh wow!’ To live and work in such a beautiful place and create art for a community is very exciting to me.”
Personal pots on the stove
And what’s next for Middleton? She hints at exciting projects on the horizon: “There’s a couple of… I’ll say, pots on the stove. I would say one is a simmer, and one is a boil,” she smiles. She reveals only that “one is in film and TV land, and one is in theater land – which is my happiest place to be with, with one foot in each as a creator, writer or performer. Those are my happy spots. So it’s nice to have something to look forward to!” (You can read the Sesaya Arts interview with her and writer-director Katie Uhlmann about a recent project – their screen comedy Cows Come Home – which is now streaming on Bell Fibe TV1 here.)
As these pots continue to bubble, you’ll find her in Prince Edward County, experiencing sisterhood on stage, discovering joy in a forest, and doing what she loves best. “When you have a good team around you, anything’s possible!”
Flowers is on stage at the County Stage’s Mount Tabor Playhouse until August 16, 2025. Snow White continues at the County Stage’s Eddie Outdoor Pavilion until August 17, 2025. Tickets and information are available on countystage.ca.
© Arpita Ghosal, Sesaya Arts Magazine 2025
