Playwright and columnist Dan Needles’ With Axe and Flask will resonate with fans of Stephen Leacock’s understated but bitingly funny tales set around the fictional town of Mariposa, Ontario. Needles, creator of the popular Wingfield Farm plays, tells the history of the fictional township of Persephone, a township not unlike the present-day city of Collingwood, two hours north of Toronto on Georgian Bay.

Needles’ narrative glides quickly over the early history of the town to focus mainly on the 35 or so years before Confederation, during which time, as historian Michael Bliss has posited – and narrator Raymond Denton cites – the Canadian economy “has been enlivened by a long parade of fast-talking moneymen, pirates, second-storey artists and speculators who force the pace of economic development…but not before they have emptied their neighbours’ wallets and exhausted the reserve fund of the nearest public body.” The Rebellion of 1837, the Family Compact, and railroad building are just a few of the real-life topics covered by Denton as he traces the history of the town.

At its best, With Axe and Flask pokes fun at the idiosyncrasies of small-town Canadian life, but also serves as a jumping-off point for a debate on public good versus private profit. In reference to local entrepreneur Tom Lynch, Denton writes: “He could afford to be smug. After all, he had kept both feet in the public trough for thirty years, never once risked his own money in private-sector combat, and yet was known across the country as a self-made man.”

Self-serving politicians, greedy businessmen, and a hoodwinked citizenry are as prevalent today as they were in pre-Confederation Canada, which gives With Axe and Flask more potency and relevance, even if you’re not a fan of local history. Because the hard working – and hard playing – people of Persephone often get taken advantage of, the small town boom-and-bust cycle described here is enough to make one cry. Through his deadpan delivery and occasional sarcasm, Needles invites us to laugh instead.