Shannon Blanchet (right) in Cocktails at Pam’s, Teatro Live! Phoro by Marc J Chalifoux
By Liz Nicholls,
If you ever suspected that human civilization is built on sand, or possibly the cubes in an ice bucket, you’re going to love the way the perfect hostess looks around her living room in the opening moments of Cocktails at Pam’s.
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“Every little throw rug is part of me!” Pam (Shannon Blanchet) cries, surveying her queendom before the guests arrive. And she bestows an affectionate pat — “non-pareil objet d’art!” — on the fanciful 60s glass vase/ashtray thingie sitting on an end-table.
In a way, the periodic returns of Teatro Live! to Stewart Lemoine’s very funny 1986 comedy — at first in five-year intervals and most recently a decade ago — are reassurance that there is some continuity, even beyond the two-tiered chip-and-dip bowl, in a turbulent world. The Teatro revival of this signature piece now running at the Varscona on a snazzy Chantel Fortin set with its perfect ‘60s fireplace, bar, tables (lighted by Victor Snaith Hernandez), is the sixth time I’ve seen it. And to think I didn’t even know what went into a gimlet when it all started!.
And speaking of non-pareil, Lemoine’s 11-actor (!) ensemble is terrific — mostly Teatro stars and all but one new to the play. They’re fun to see, all dressed up in a gallery of 60s frocks, suits, gowns, little hats, gloves — a specialty of costume designer Leona Brausen, whose wigs in Cocktails at Pam’s are a ’60s comedy in themselves.
The ensemble is led by Blanchet, compelling (this is, trust me, the mot juste) as the adrenalized, vivacious Pam, a role originated, and till now occupied, by Davina Stewart. Countries regularly invade other countries with (a lot) less planning than Pam determining the appropriate number of suitable vases for flowers at her party.
Given the massive storm Friday that plunged the Varscona into darkness at show time, and delayed the opening performance of Cocktails at Pam’s till the next night — even though the post-show hors d’oeuvres were already laid out! — you might wonder, in retrospect, whether Pam might actually have exploded on the spot in similar circumstances.
Bella King and Shannon Blanchet in Cocktails at Pam’s, Teatro Live! Photo by Marc J Chalifoux.
The whole party is driven by the manic brio of Pam (“mirth! mirth!”), whose exit and entrance speed as she sails through her world is something to behold, in Blanchet’s performance. But at the centre of the comedy is Pam’s husband Julius, wonderfully played by Andrew MacDonald-Smith, suave, urbane, skeptical — and hilariously unfaze-able as he mixes cocktails at the bar.
“No offence…” as people at Pam’s party always say after blurting out the most outrageously offensive things. Julius’s invariable reaction, a veritable existential mandate, is a blithe “none taken.” As MacDonald-Smith conveys so amusingly, Julius is an expert in keeping things airborne; after all, he does manage an airline. This info, incidentally, is revealed in a toss-away line, and never returns for discussion or amplification.
The arrival of the first guest, Bella King, delightful as the ingenue Cynthia Dallas, on a night off from playing Cordelia in King Lear at Stratford, occasions an exchange with Julius about theatre you’ll savour. “Whenever I go to the theatre, it’s never because I want to,” Julius says, bemused that anyone might think otherwise.
Anyhow, the hypnotizing thing about Cocktails at Pam’s, as I’ve re-discovered this weekend, is that it doesn’t ‘unfold’ the way a play does. No, it sort of accumulates onstage, gathering characters as it goes, whenever the doorbell rings. Like a party.
And like a party, the expanding assortment of people who neither would nor should be in the same room together at one time (which is parties are for) are talking without saying anything (which is what small talk is for). Nothing really happens … until later, when something really does.
Andrew MacDonald-Smith in Cocktails at Pam’s, Teatro Live! Photo by Marc J Chalifoux.
Meanwhile, we have the fun of Lemoine’s weave of non-sequiturs, crossed wires, tangents, mystifying pocket explanations, dropped conversational fragments, misheard bits of back stories. People take positions in pointless arguments on subjects, like seagulls vs terns, they know nothing about. Ah, and since it’s a party, people agree to play charades, even though no one wants to (“inevitability,” explains one character).
Kendra Connor and Troy O’Donnell in Cocktails at Pam’s, Teatro Live! Photo by Marc J Chalifoux
It is entirely typical of Cocktails at Pam’s that the amusingly dull doctor and his chirpy wife (Troy O’Donnell in his Teatro debut and Kendra Connor) arrive in full evening wear — tuxedo, gown, mink stole, tiara — explaining that they’re going bowling later. No one seems even mildly surprised by this.
There’s fun to be had in all the performances, including Cathy Derkach as a first-time maid who can’t quite get the hang of the pace. The Blacks, Virgil and Sarah, are a riot, played to maximum awfulness by Mathew Hulshof and Rachel Bowron. The former is a civil servant with radically original interpretive views on Lear (we’ve been getting it very wrong, my friends). Sarah, whose snarl n’ sneer combo could curdle cream at 100 paces, is Pam’s best friend, the role played hitherto by costume designer Leona Brausen (who’s bequeathed a vertiginous two-tier black wig to her successor). The Blacks are a vision, as dressed by Brausen in their signature colour.
Rachel Bowron and Mathew Hulshof in Cocktails at Pam’s, Teatro Live! Photo by Marc J Chalifoux
Pam’s insouciant brother Leon, played with amusing flippancy by Oscar Derkx, has apparently no filters whatsoever; he says whatever occurs to him, on impulse, just as if it’s part of small talk. Kristen Padayas is Lily, whose claim to distinction, besides showing up entirely in orange, is bringing her friend Estelle. This pleasant divorcée is transformed on the spot by the intensity of her views on the canapés; she delivers them in a electrifying rant, a showstopper in Pam’s living room that escalates and then keeps going. Belinda Cornish rises rather spectacularly to the occasion. Even the Blacks are awestruck. Lemoine’s “green pepper monologue,” incidentally, is one of the best-known audition pieces in Canadian theatre.
You’ll have a lot of fun at Pam’s party, which feels like one of Julius’s special surprise cocktails, brightly coloured, fizzy, with mystery ingredients that have never been put together in quite that way before. And you’ll leave wondering if that last gimlet (or was it a gibson?) went to your head.
REVIEW
Cocktails at Pam’s
Theatre: Teatro Live!
Written and directed by: Stewart Lemoine
Starring: Shannon Blanchet, Rachel Bowron, Kendra Connor, Belinda Cornish, Cathy Derkach, Oscar Derkx, Mathew Hulshof, Bella King, Andrew MacDonald-Smith, Kristen Padayas, Troy O’Donnell
Where: Varscona Theatre, 10329 8e Ave.
Running: through July 26
Tickets: teatrolive.com
