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Culture Stage

All Fired up

The eighth annual Cooking Fire Theatre Festival, which closed on Sunday, June 24, was one of the grassroots event’s best, with shows for kids and also a darker-toned episode for their parents.

The first performances of the evening in Dufferin Grove Park – following a meal prepared in the park’s ovens – are aimed at younger viewers, but this year there was thoughtful material mixed in with the light entertainment.

A section from the award-winning Spent, presented by TheatreRUN, Theatre Smith-Gilmour and Why Not Theatre, had creator/performers Ravi Jain and Adam Paolozza playing a rapidly shifting series of newscasters and commentators looking at the 2008 world economic meltdown. The youngsters enjoyed the physical and vocal comedy, while their parents also caught the material’s social parody.

Another show that’s played Toronto previously, SplashH2O, came in “distilled” form: a shortened version of Houppz Théâtre’s production, here presented by that troupe and Edge of the Woods Theatre. The three clown-based episodes all dealt with water: a scientific study of how to pour it into a glass and drink it a ballet in which a master dancer and two disciples portray seagulls and the cleverest, a sketch in which two snobbish goldfish comment on their owner’s preparation for a date.

Dan Watson, who co-wrote the material and performed it during a Fringe production several seasons ago, here directed Rob Feetham, Fernando Lara and Viktor Lukawski.

The first half ended with Period Of Tranzish, presented by French Connection and again directed by Watson, featured Paolozza and Lisa Marie DiLiberto as an upwardly mobile couple moving in to a new condo in the area, a “spacious” 120-square-foot apartment that doesn’t deliver all it promises. Again, the clown-inspired action was a hit with the audience of 200 or so, especially when DiLiberto brought up dozens of under-10 youngsters to be part of a girls’ night out.

The second half was even stronger, beginning with Richard Sanger’s Grannie Didn’t Go To Florida, inspired by a Flannery O’Connor story and presented by SNAP Productions and Theatre Hetaerae. Director Leora Morris’s production expertly blended comedy and chilling action in the tale of a family (Bruce Beaton, DiLiberto, Aaron Stern and Caitlin Driscoll) driving to Florida. Their trip hits some roadblocks because of the chicanery of Grannie (a wonderful Tanja Jacobs), who insists on taking her cat with her. Cliff Saunders and musician Tim Postgate play some dangerous guys they meet on the way.

Another new treat was Powerpunch®, created and performed by Echantillon no. 23’s Zach Fraser, Stéphane Heine and Estelle Richard. The Quebec puppet company made ingenious use of constantly rearranged cabinet drawers as their set in the tale of a scientist who invents a drink that invigorates his ailing mother. When the local dictator hears about it, he does his best to get hold of the miraculous concoction. Only too late does he discover its side effects.

The final show of the evening was Hare Theatre’s Mr. F’s Clock Shop, created and performed by Sandy Gribbin in collaboration with Ryan Rogerson. Though it eventually developed some charm, it was the slightest work in the festival. Better if Cooking Fire organizers had switched it with the next-to-last puppet show and ended on a strong note.

Bleating love

The Goat, Or Who Is Sylvia? isn’t in the first rank of Edward Albee’s plays, but how can your interest not be aroused by a play in which a man admits to his family that he’s in love with a goat?

No, this isn’t a Woody Allen-inspired piece, though it has its share of laughs.

And while the one-line summary suggests that the play is about bestiality, it’s really more focused on the nature of love, the fact that love needn’t be limited to a single person (or other living creature) and that those we’re closest to and love the most are also potentially able to hurt us the most.

The staging by ATIC Productions, which closed on Sunday, June 24, caught the emotional centre of Albee’s play in the performances of Tim Walker and Rosemary Doyle as Martin and Stevie, the husband and wife who have to deal with an emotional and physical triangle.

The horned Sylvia, Martin’s second love – he discovers her when he’s looking for a family country home – is first joked about by husband and wife, but when Martin reveals his secret to best-friend Ross (Benjamin Blais), Ross feels duty-bound to write to Stevie and tell her the truth. That’s when family life goes to shit, involving not only Martin and Stevie but also their gay son Billy (Ben Hayward).

While Ross and Billy aren’t especially well fleshed out, Martin and Stevie are excitingly realized by Walker and Doyle in their long encounter at the play’s centre. Doyle is confrontational and cutting, Walker often quietly defensive and full of explanations. She goads him, her emotions close to the surface Doyle knows how to shift subtly between comic innuendo and deeply hurt feelings. Walker gives a simple, heartfelt and rational quality to how he met Sylvia, his love for her and the description of a self-help group for animal lovers. We don’t doubt that Martin loves both Stevie and Sylvia.

The two actors work really well together under Carter West’s direction, giving an energy to their scenes that’s not always apparent when the other two characters are onstage.

Frantowski farewell

It’s a tradition for departing Second City members to recreate their favourite sketches on their final night. The show last Wednesday, June 20, paid tribute to Inessa Frantowski, who logged more than 700 shows and helped create four original revues, including the award-winning (and one of my all-time favourites) Something Wicked Awesome This Way Comes. We’re going to sorely miss Frantowski on the SC mainstage. She’s got a great physical style, using her wide eyes well to express awkwardness and fear.

In sketches involving uncomfortable sexual encounters, she was often the go-to female performer. She and Rob Norman revisited one of Wicked Awesome’s comic masterpieces: a scene involving a former couple who meet for an innocent coffee and try to convince themselves they’re not still attracted to each other. Their escalating cries of “This is not cheating!” while engaged in the most compromising positions – pretending to pat each other down at security – were hysterically funny.

In a contrasting scene, Frantowski played a woman who’d broken up with her partner seeking some solace with friend Alastair Forbes, who’d been dumped as well. The two get into a pretzel of erotic confusion and sadness that was hilarious in its honesty.

And her sketch with Adam Cawley as a couple who wants to have a threesome (with Rob Baker showing up instead of a woman) is still brilliant, with each actor so completely in character the escalating laughs feel natural.

Frantowski could also get away with things other performers would never try: consider her linguistically challenged prostitute who would proposition others (including audience members) by pointing to various cracks on her body, saying, “You like this?” When we first saw the sketch, it seemed like a throwaway but over time, it became endearing in its simplicity and bravery, like something Andrea Martin might have come up with.

And her horse cop scene with Jason DeRosse showcased her ease playing arrogant authority figures. Frantowski’s one of those actors who so completely embodies a character that even a non-English speaker could understand what she’s doing. It’s all there, in her posture, her eyes, the tone of her voice.

What’s next for her? She’s got a small role in David Cronenberg’s Cosmopolis, currently in first-run theatres, and she’s working on another sketch troupe. Can’t wait to see what she does next.

Serving up MacDonald

Stand-up Tracey MacDonald is probably best known for winning CBS’s Star Search, which earned her $200,000 and a two-year development deal. We’d never seen the Maritimes-born, L.A.-based comic headline before, and we’re glad we did last Wednesday, June 20, at Yuk Yuk’s Downtown. She’s got a sweet, likeable presence that contrasts with the often raunchy jokes that come out of her mouth.

Much of her act sends up L.A.’s image obsession. She’s got good bits about Botox and plastic surgery, and a few zingers about joining Weight Watchers (where the elevators have a maximum capacity of nine people, “or three new members”).

There’s something tentative about her delivery, however, that’s a little strange when she speaks, at times it sounds like she’s crying. And she doesn’t look at the audience much. Is that part of her act, or shyness?

The modestly attended Wednesday night show got off to a rough start with Roy Daye’s meandering hosting duties, but picked up with solid sets by Bryan Hatt, John Ki and Daryn Jones, among others. 3

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