Theatre Network season opener a smart two-hander with humour and heart
Mark Crawford’s Bed and Breakfast is one of those Canadian stage comedies that overcame small beginnings in a summer theatre in Ontario to take on a life of its own – and much like Kim’s Convenience, became the basis of a successful television series.
Theatre Network begins its new season in the Roxy on Gateway with the smart, funny two-hander with a big heart. It runs through Dec. 8.
It starts when two likeable gay guys from Toronto, Brett (Mathew Hulshof) and Drew (Chris Pereira), inherit an old house in small-town Ontario. In the two hours (plus intermission), these two gifted actors will seamlessly mutate into some 22 different characters.
In this charming fish-out-of-water tale, they decide to turn their backs on their familiar urban lives and open a bed and breakfast. Says one,” I can make eggs.” Says the other, “I can make coffee. How hard can that be?” Their gay city friends sniff, “There’s no bar. No club. No culture.”
The concept may remind theatre patrons of Rod Beattie’s popular one-man show, Letter from Wingfield Farm, where a Toronto stockbroker moves to a small Ontario town and encounters a series of eccentric local oddballs. Beattie played it mostly for laughs. Bed and Breakfast certainly is funny, but this one is played for the heart and humanity.
The two newcomers enlist the help of Doug, a gruff, monosyllabic and highly unhelpful local contractor, as they embark on seemingly unending renovations. When someone observes there are no queers in the community, the two smile knowingly and sure enough encounter a whole group of underground gays. They become friends with a pregnant barista, a gabby real estate agent, a supportive old coot who lives across the road, and a lesbian Irish biker who calls herself “dyke on a bike”; she also has two dogs – named Anne Murray and k.d. Lang. There are also a couple of high school students experimenting with their sexuality that the actors create with great comic finesse.
Their guests are a confounding lot and a scene of uncontrolled comic chaos ensues as worlds collide. There’s a major snafu of Fawlty Towers proportions as character and circumstance pile upon each other during breakfast on their first morning. Director Bradly Moss whips up the pace as character after character walks through the doors, while the new dog our heroes have adopted attempts to hump the legs of most everyone.
There are acts of kindness and hospitality but always hovering on the horizon is the threat of homophobia, and it takes some adjusting to the new attitudes around them. Drew takes exception to Brett’s desire to keep the relationship private – “No public kissing.”
Complains Drew, “I didn’t give up life in the big city to move here and go back in the closet.”
When their house is vandalized the two must face a decision to stay and fight, or simply give up and go back to their previous life.
Much of this may sound familiar but the approach is fresh. Moss brings a sense of new discovery to the process. He makes sure his play will appeal to a broad audience while exhibiting his usual thoughtfulness There is a grounded feel here taking full advantage of the playwright’s very Canadian self-effacing humour. Family secrets are exposed, as is the idea of what really constitutes home. The ending is unexpected and powerful.
The two actors are terrific – generating a genuine chemistry. Hulshof plays a bit rabbity, while Pereira is more down to earth. They work together is if they were long-time roommates. Between them they enact a whole village of disparate characters giving each of them distinctive, dimensional personalities. They switch roles with a subtle twitch, gesture or vocal shade – dashing out a doorway to return, seconds later, as someone completely different. At one point in a cafe, the two play half a dozen people at the same time, making the characters so unique that there is no confusion as to who is saying what to whom.
There is love here. And acceptance. And a lot of sunny humour. Make a reservation for this Bed and Breakfast.
Photos by Ian Jackson/EPIC Protography
