Dundas-filmed prison comedy series Pink Is In now a movie
Wacky comedy about a dysfunctional administration in a low-budget institution celebrates its many connections to Hamilton.
A dozen episodes of zany prison comedy Pink Is In have now been reworked into a feature film that is making its debut at The Westdale on Nov. 27.
Pink Is In is set in the fictional Chatsworth Hamilton Women’s Prison where inept administrators and quirky inmates combine for campy laughs. The show was filmed in the Millworks Creative Studios in Dundas and features plenty of Hamilton locations – City Hall, the High-Level Bridge, Hess Village and Stonewalls Pub on York Boulevard to name a few.
“A lot of productions hide that they are filmed in Hamilton or even in Canada, but we play it up,” says show writer and actor Kim Lombard, who lives in Burlington.
“We have escapees end up in Hess Village wearing a Hamilton Bulldogs T-shirt.”
Pink Is In stars: Elley-Ray Hennessy as Warden Dungworth, who is chronically overworked, underpaid and filled with lust; Trish Rainone, as Top Dog, who sits on top of the inmate pecking order; Natasha Bromfield, the super-positive prison therapist LaShawndra the Therapist; Jon Welch, as handsome Guard Festerson; and Lombard as Pip Barnett, the billionaire CEO of the private prison whose bio reads: “He has the IQ of a lava lamp. Recently celebrated five months without an original thought.”
The show has attracted comedic actors Patrick McKenna and Jayne Eastwood, who both live in Hamilton, as well as well-known character actor AC Peterson.
“We had agents reaching out to us for the second season,” says Lombard, who wrote the show. “We went from no wanting to be in it to being nominated for best ensemble cast at the ACTRA Awards three years in a row.”
Eastwood, McKenna and Hennessy were all nominated for 2024 Canadian Screen Awards.
Hamilton is baked deep into this dysfunctional prison, on-screen and off. Much of the cast and crew are from in and around the city and 15 local businesses stepped up as sponsors for a show shot on a tight budget.
Creator and producer Lisa Crawford, who also and appears on-screen as inmate Nezrenko, lives in Hamilton. Her co-creator, Caroline Puzinas, also lives in the city.
Hamilton resident Darren Stewart-Jones stars as drag queen Ruby LaRue, “every man's deviant sexual fantasy and reliable drinking partner.”
The show is directed by Aharon Jinjihashvili, and Israeli-Canadian film director who has partnered with Crawford and Stewart-Jones to form Hamilton-based independent film house 2020Productions.
The show’s 12 episodes can be seen on Bell Fibe TV1 and is available in a number of countries on various streaming services, including Prime and Tubi.
“Lisa asked me if I thought the show could work as a movie and I said, ‘Yeah, I think it'd be terrific.’ And I purposely didn't get involved, because, as the writer, you love everything you write, and some of it had to end up on the cutting room floor. And I'd be like, ‘No, no, you’ve got to leave that in the film and it would be eight hours long.”
Lombard will see the film, which includes one new scene, for the first time at The Westdale.
“We have a wonderful editor, Cat Senior, and she played a pivotal role in turning this thing into a feature.”
Lombard says he was immediately intrigued when Crawford pitched the idea of a prison comedy that riffs on the huge success of Orange is the New Black and Wentworth and asked if he wanted to be part of it.
Lombard, who was born in London, England, was inspired by British comedy, which he says is the best in the world.
After Lombard required neck surgery followed by 47 days of bed rest, he called Crawford and said his character should wear a neck brace. From there, he wrote four episodes.
“When we shot those episodes and I saw what the actors brought to the characters, I went home and started writing the next four.”
Bromfield, in particular, a Second City veteran, brought brilliant improv to filming.
“We would do multiple takes of her scenes and every one was funnier than that last.”
Pink Is In is written as a soap opera in the sense that plot lines don’t resolve until the 12th episode, which ends on a cliffhanger. Lombard says the team holds out hope that more episodes will get the green light. He’s even written six more episodes in anticipation.
“We are still back and forth (on whether more episodes will be approved) but you just kind of carry on with your life. And if it happens, fantastic.”
In the meantime, Pink Is In has spun-off into a pilot episode starring Stewart-Jones called Ruby Tries Everything. It’s now airing on Cogeco.
“It's actually a cool idea. Ruby interviews a celebrity, and we had Jayne Eastwood in the first episode.”
Veteran actor Eastwood appeared in the Pink Is In Christmas special A Pink & Green Christmas and has been a huge supporter of the show, says Lombard. (The special will be screened at the film debut, too).
LaRue and Eastwood visited Summit Station Dairy & Creamery in Flamborough.
If Pink Is In carries on, the show will have to find a new filming location. Millworks is now too full with tenants to accommodate the shooting.
The show has faced challenges before. The first eight episodes were shot amid actual and looming pandemic shutdowns. And while it’s a full-on comedy, the show represents diversity, including race, sexual orientation and gender identity, all while putting women front and centre.
Crawford and her spouse Goldy Locks, executive producer and cast member on Pink Is In, are both transgender women.
Pink Is In earned high praise from Globe and Mail TV critic John Doyle.
"A truly insane but admirable women's prison comedy. This is one of those gutsy Canadian comedies that deserves a much bigger audience."
NEED TO KNOW
Pink Is In – The Movie
The Westdale
Nov. 27, 7 p.m. (movie starts at 7:30 p.m.)
1014 King St. W., Hamilton
Tickets here
