Still screwy

Second City Theatricals’ Reverie: Simply
Unspeakable is like a live-action cartoon

HISTORICALLY HILARIOUS:
Second City Theatricals

by NEIL BOYCE

Chicago-based company Second City Theatricals—a branch of the storied theatre that launched so many Canadian comedians (and Saturday Night Live members)—exists to tour the work of their diverse performers. Partnering with the amorphous Just for Laughs festival, they’ve brought the production Reverie: Simply Unspeakable to town as a sort of high-level showcase of physical comedy.

Co-created by the cast and director Dexter Bullard, the assembled group of actor-clowns works insanely hard for the laughs, mixing solo and duo sketches with ensemble work to spotlight their own niche in the world of physical comedy.

The range of styles on display from these industrial-strength mimes was a sight to behold: suggestive of a live-action cartoon.

Six bored people dressed in business grey are seated around a conference table. Slack-jawed, fingers drumming, slouching in identical office chairs, they all dream of where they’d rather be. As the light shifts focus, a story takes off from one or another performer’s “reverie”; a kind of mad graffiti of motion and expression that explodes into being.

Lauren Dowden is the rapidly deflating blow-up doll to pervy Dean Evans, who, gasping for air, blows into her toe to keep her going.

Emmanuelle Delpech-Ramey is a stripper who peels off her clothes, removes her teeth, then takes out an eyeball before getting even more graphic.

Laura Grey is at one point a Charlie Chaplin tramp, picking out a woman from the audience for a gender-bending romance. Switching gears, she becomes an awkward girl at the prom, peering out at the crowd with a miserable hangdog face.

An air-guitar band shifts from Motörhead metal to polka to Gregorian chant in the space of five seconds.

Former MADtv regular Frank Caeti is a (very) overgrown baby whose first steps—then spins, break-dances and does an elaborate dance routine culminating in a handstand—are missed by his parents as they fuss with a video camera.

All the while, the seventh member of the company, musical director Trey Stone, adds live music and a whistling and beeping array of perfectly timed sound effects.

None of which really conveys the subtlety of performances and the level at which this company works. Bullard controls the overall shape of the story, directing the unruly cast with impressive dexterity, giving performers space to let a routine go to absurd lengths before snapping it back to the dull office.

Something unexpected also happens: in the frequent moments throughout the show without music, every creaking seat in the audience, every groan from the cast, or anyone in the audience with an unusual laugh gets ridiculously magnified. The cast react quickly, making it part of the event.

That’s the difference with a stage show—and it reminds you how alive, adaptive and organic a piece of theatre can be.

OLD TIMEY FUNNY

Graham’s Cuthbertson’s Whiteman’s Whiskey Comedy Revue gets a second life at Zoofest with its loving resurrection of ’40s to’50s-era variety shows.

Their two-night premiere at Théâtre Ste-Catherine last February was a loose affair of comedy, banter and music that stressed the sweaty discomfort of its cast with plenty of drunken interludes about the restorative power of booze.

REVERIE: SIMPLY UNSPEAKABLE
TO JULY 26 AT GESÙ
(1200 BLEURY)
WHITEMAN’S WHISKEY COMEDY
REVUE TO JULY 26 AT LE GYMNASE
(4177 ST-DENIS), (514) 845-2322,
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