The Comedy Company balances hilarity with horror
Neil Grahn is a very funny fellow.
We first realized that when, with three other jovial people calling themselves Three Dead Trolls in a Baggie, Grahn helped solidify the Fringe in its very earliest days.
Grahn has been around making us laugh in various ways ever since. (Full disclosure: We worked on a number of television shows together.) He rose to the position as head writer of CBC Radio’s late, lamented The Irrelevant Show.
These nights, John Hudson’s Shadow Theatre has unleashed Grahn’s latest comic salvo: a new play entitled The Comedy Company, “a fictional recounting of an absolutely true story.” The world premiere, coinciding with the 100th anniversary of the end of World War I, plays at the Varscona Theatre through Nov. 11.
Apparently during the Great War, company members of Edmonton’s Princess Patricia’s Canadian Light Infantry were asked by their Commander, Agar Adamson (Julien Arnold), to put together a musical-comedy revue to entertain the troops and boost morale. Arnold, with his best spit-and-polish, confronts Jack McLaren (a laconic Andrew MacDonald-Smith) and bellows, “You have the unfortunate habit of cracking jokes in inappropriate situations.”
“It’s the way I am, sir,” says the soldier.
Adamson charges him with putting together “a group of like-minded fellows” to form a comic troupe. And so he did. McLaren’s hardy jokesters conceived, wrote and performed comedy songs and sketches – often within the sound of the guns. Cross-dressing was demanded. There are several very funny scenes where the performers work out their jokes and songs.
Their first audience was dragooned to watch.
“I know you didn’t want to be here,” barks the Sergeant, “but you are ordered to enjoy the show!”
The soldiers, starved for entertainment, loved them and the troop became wildly popular.
Grahn has mined that story, added his own comic genius, and come up with a riotous entertainment made even more effective because of the situation in which the shows were created and performed. The playwright does not forget the seriousness of the times – stopping from time to time for some thoughtful and well-placed comments about the madness of war. One of the troupe, TJ Lilley (Sheldon Elder) asks McLaren how he can find humour in the horrors that surround them. Responds McLaren, “I hope to make fun of the insanity.” (Still on active duty, the comedy troupe was sent back to the front for the famous Canadian “creeping barrage” of Vimy Ridge.)
Hudson has, as usual, assembled a cracker-jack cast: Julien Arnold, Nathan Cuckow, Sheldon Elter, Jesse Gervais, Steven Greenfield, Andrew MacDonald-Smith and Nick Samoil. Each of the cast is funny, and they quickly and individually develop their own comic ethos. Elter, with his “idiot grin” and great timing, milks Grahn’s script for all it is worth. Gervais is a ramrod by-the-book military leader. Stiff and uncomfortable on stage, he demands, “Why did you choose me?” The reply is: “We needed some comic relief.” The accomplished actor uses his stiffness to great effect. Steven Greenfield, with a much bolstered superstructure, plays the female lead who apparently fooled some of the men because they came backstage to meet “her.” A cross-dresser has not had this much fun since Jack Lemmon hung up his pumps in Some Like It Hot. Once again, MacDonald-Smith amazes with his fire-cracker talent.
All this is performed in a remarkable set from Alison Yanota. It’s mostly gauze strung as torn bandages, which become a screen for some well-chosen visuals. Yanota also provides the effective lighting. Hudson’s whole production moves to the tempo of war including music (Robert Walsh), projections (Matt Schuurman), realistic sound effects (Dave Clarke) and costumes (Leona Brausen).
Grahn’s script continuously remind us of the horrors of war, and so do Hudson’s well staged battle sequences.
Later, the comedy troupe joined with another collection of players to form the famous “Dumbells.” They performed before the King and even had a run on Broadway.
But, mostly, they continued to entertain the troops.
More full disclosure: I grew up with stories about the “Dumbells” because one evening, in the audience, among hundreds of his fellows, was my own father. He never forgot that night.
Photos by Marc J. Chalifoux
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