REVIEW
A Mad Breakfast and When God Comes for Breakfast, You Don’t Burn the Toast
St. Albert Dinner Theatre
Runs April 28, May 3 to 5 and 10 to 12
Kinsmen Banquet Centre
47 Riel Dr.
Tickets: $50 to $55. Call 780-222-0102 or at www.stalbertheatre.com
St. Albert Dinner Theatre was launched to give adult actors a shot at creating theatre in their hometown.
Some thought the founders were mad to invest time into a project that had no playing space, no money and no resources.
But a few hardy souls persisted and out of nothing they built a company with a laudable goal of serving comedies and farces as easily digestible as its buffet dinner.
As the troupe closes its sixth season at Kinsmen Banquet Centre, newcomer Emily Pole directs a comedic double bill pivoting around food.
The first play, Isabel McReynolds Gray’s A Mad Breakfast, is a crackpot farce set in the 1930s at a boarding house. Mr. Jones (Trevor Talbot), a looney-tunes practical joker reminiscent of Curly from the Three Stooges, reads a newspaper advertisement from Mr. Long (Dayton Miller), a young man eager to study inmates in an insane asylum.
Jones invites Long to his boarding house to converse with the so-called inmates. Instead he tells each of the guests a different fabricated lie about who Long is.
When Miss Brown (Christine Gold) questions whether anyone would believe him, a gleeful Jones replies, “Each to his own folly.”
The peppery housekeeper Mrs. Simpkins (Joanne Poplett), believes he is a food inspector. Her daughter Lizzie (Sarah Rowsom), the romantic maid, is told he’s a prince who lost his beloved.
Miss Smith (Rita Jensen), an over-the-top wannabe actress and theatre goddess in the making, is convinced Long scouts talent. Miss Green (Jennifer Kennedy), a painter, is confident he’s an art dealer while Mr. Hill, a self-proclaimed psychic, is duped into thinking Long is a clairvoyant.
There’s some good old-fashioned eating, a catfight, muddled Shakespearean ramblings, and a seance that tumbles into chaos. After all the shenanigans are said and done, you’re left wondering who really is insane.
The second show, Gary Apple’s When God Comes for Breakfast, You Don’t Burn the Toast, with a cast of three is a tighter, funnier production.
That is attributed to Tracey and Kelly Aisenstat, a real-life husband and wife that play off each other’s strengths and weaknesses in much the same way Lucille Ball and Desi Arnaz did.
The 1980s play opens as late night TV is shutting down. Harry (Kelly) turns off the TV and wakes up a sleepy Beatrice (Tracy) for a small chat. Just before heading to bed, he casually mentions God (Elizabeth Allchin) is arriving for breakfast the next morning.
Beatrice, a woman who needs to be in control, immediately shifts into panic mode. She demands hubby call the Almighty and postpone the meal. She even yanks out the yellow pages to find his number.
The Aisenstats are excellent actors setting up jokes and nailing punch lines expertly. And as a feminine grandmotherly God, Allchin is the epitome of warmth and benevolence.
Neither play is meaty, slice-of-life theatre. But they show us there is humour in life, and coupled with a tasty dinner, the evening is a filling antidote to daily stress.
