Latest news with #LiarataFuneral

Calgary Herald

Review: Liars at a Funeral a mapcap evening of multi-character shenanigans

The laughs come fast and frequently in Alberta Theatre Projects' Liars at a Funeral, Sophia Fabiilli's deft farce about a matriarch's desperate attempt to heal the wounds in her dysfunctional family. Article content Mavis believes the root of the problem is a family curse of twin girls. Her daughter Evelyn only got as far as the parking lot for her twin Sheila's funeral, and Evelyn's twin girls, Deedee and Mia, haven't spoken to each other for a decade. Marvis feels that if they could all just get in the same room, they could dispense with their petty grievances. So she fakes her death and invites them all to her funeral. Article content The clever device in Fabiilli's play is that the actors each play two characters. Article content Article content Tyrell Crews plays Wayne, Evelyn's husband, who married Sheila when Evelyn divorced him, and Frank, Evelyn's gay friend who pretends to be her boyfriend from Vancouver. Helen Knight plays Evelyn and Leorah, the libertine owner of the funeral parlour who returns unexpectedly, and must be kept in the dark as much as possible. Article content Grace Fedorchuk plays both DeeDee and Mia, with Joel David Taylor playing their respective love interests, Cam and Quint, Leorah's trainee undertaker who is hoping for a promotion. To complicate matters, and to highlight the curse, Mia is pregnant with twin girls. Article content Anton DeGroot's set has enough doors and entrances so the actors can exit, make their quick costume changes, and re-enter as their alternate character from a different entrance. Even the coffin, which occupies the centrestage, is used in this ruse. Article content The gimmick in Liar at a Funeral is an actor's dream, especially with the way Fabiilli has written the characters. Article content Article content Crews gets to be the gay friend who has to act straight, and the lush and Leorah's sex toy that Wayne has become. Costume-wise, it's just shoes and jackets, but the two men couldn't be more different, and Crews has great fun being both. His comic timing is impeccable, and, especially with Frank, there is always a sly wink that lets the audience know they are in on the joke. Article content Knight has great fun with Leorah, the sexpot who is a bit of a tyrant to her poor underling Quint, and, her Evelyn is always just shy of discovering what's going on. She's desperate for her mother and daughter not to discover she has a girlfriend in Vancouver, which is why it is so important for Frank to play the dutiful boyfriend. The fact that most of the characters have their own secrets doubles the fun for the audience because they are aware of all these machinations.