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Sudbury review: Bed and Breakfast nourishes the body and soul
YES Theatre is doing what no other theatre company across Canada is doing ... live, pandemic-safe theatre
Special to The Sudbury Star
Jake Deeth (left) and Alessandro Costantini each play 11 characters in YES Theatre's production of Bed & Breakfast. Supplied SunMedia
By Judi Straughan
Sudbury review: Bed and Breakfast nourishes the body and soul Back to video
How can a laugh-out-loud, face-paced, zany comedy tenderly nourish the soul? Ask playwright Mark Crawford. His play, Bed and Breakfast, currently playing at the Sudbury Theatre Centre until Dec. 13, does just that.
YES Theatre is doing what no other theatre company across Canada is doing … live, pandemic-safe theatre. Thank you, YES Theatre.
Crawford's Bed and Breakfast, starring Alessandro Costantini as Brett and Jake Deeth as Drew, delivers a surprise package to its audience. With the most common of titles and premises, two gay guys run a bed and breakfast, little beyond a few good belly laughs might be expected.
Don't be fooled. There's so much more.
From the moment the audience is welcomed by the disembodied heads of Costantini and Deeth, it knows it's in for a wild ride … more than 20 characters played by two actors without costumes or props and with a single multi-purpose set.
The audience's seat belts click shut. Ready.
Deeth and Costantini are fearless performers. Deeth is well known for his physical comedy and no-holds-barred characters. Here, he snaps from a hunch-backed uncle to a monosyllabic doofus; from a swivel-hipped woman to a dyke on a bike. Each character is chiseled with precision.
Costantini, never to be out-done, is refreshing as a pregnant woman and the lovable teen Dustin who desperately needs Drew and Brett in his life.
The story takes Brett and Drew from Toronto harried apartment life to a small town Aunt Maggie's inheritance of an enormous home. Brett and Drew feel they have little to lose and decide to turn their new home into a bed and breakfast. The script focuses not on the guests, but on the people of the town, giving it a Schitt's Creek feel.
Brett and Drew are skilled enough for their new venture, but hate lurks in the underbelly of even this little town. Homophobia awakens and there are no big-city places for them to hide. Acceptance eludes them even when they become community leaders in the Santa Claus parade.
They heatedly argue about whether it's best to live authentically or disguise their true selves in this homophobic culture. What happens pays tribute to Mark Crawford's exceptional script.
Costantini and Deeth are faced with the exhilarating challenge of creating multi-faceted performances that embody the extremes of emotions while flipping between male, female, young, old, citified and countrified. Hats off to both of them.
Janie Pinard is director. What a challenge. With her choreographic eye, she is able to change the cast's direction in a nano-second. The beat of her direction is intense. She manages to solve every twist and turn, never leaving the audience behind as she maintains crystal-clear story-telling. Pulling off a breakfast scene of six characters with two actors is enough to keep any director awake at night. Pinard's background in physical theatre is obvious in her cast's performances. Kudos, as well, to her teammate, Morgan Cook, stage-manager and co-creator.
One of the production's biggest coups is a wedding-night sex scene that is howl-able. Let no more be said.
Bed and Breakfast serves up circus fare with the cast asked to perform gymnastics on a high-wire wearing skates and having no safely net. The audience leapt to its feet at curtain call, a fitting tribute to the evening's triumph.
Opening night's quest for perfection found some pace challenges. The play can use more breathing points and a few different speed gears. Too much frenetic French-farce pacing can sometimes exhaust more than the actors.
It's a wild ride like no other we've had in the past 10 months. To be in the theatre, laughing together, experiencing joy once more through a heart-warming script, with passionate performances … well- it's just what we all need.
YES Theatre's Bed and Breakfast plays until Dec. 13. Tickets are available through its presenting partner, Sudbury Theatre Centre.
Judi Straughan is a member of the Sudbury Arts Council and a playwright.
YES Theatre and the Sudbury Theatre Centre presents Bed and Breakfast by Mark Crawford, until Dec. 13 at the STC.
Tickets are $40 and there is a limit of 50 tickets per performance.
All social distancing and COVID-19 regulations will be followed.
Tickets available through the Sudbury Theatre Centre Box Office, boxffice@sudburytheatre.ca or call 705-674-8381, ext. 21.
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