Curtains Up Winnipeg

Photo credit: Dahlia Katz

The show opens with a couple surrounded by their stuff, a seemingly random assortment of boxes and objects of varying provenance. Comedy duo Matt Baram and Naomi Snieckus are visually and metaphorically overwhelmed by possessions. The storytelling is anchored in these physical objects, alternating between improvised intervals and scripted scenes from the couple’s life. Warning: there is audience participation. There is a loose narrative arc that takes them hauling stuff over the border from the USA, but it isn’t worth your time getting hung up on the progression.

It needs to be said that Matt Baram and Naomi Snieckus are absolutely delightful together. They are both now on my to watch list of comedic talents. Individually they are skilled but together they sparkle. Their quick fire responses are fun, and oh so witty. If they play off each other as well off stage as on, it is not surprising why they have been married so long. I would happily watch either of them in any future theatre productions going forward.

The defining feature of the show is that the actors tell it directly to the audience, essentially breaking down the fourth wall completely. This gave it the feeling of a stand up comedy special with some rehearsed segments. This gave it a coziness, but also a decidedly non-theatrical feel. It ended up feeling like you were having dinner with a really interesting and entertaining couple – enjoyable, but not generally what I go to the theatre to experience. The friend who came with me described it as “a little too long for a fringe play”, and it is a fair assessment of what it felt like – although to reiterate, the actors are incredibly skilled. When it was the two of them, it flowed. When they were drawing out audience participation, it often lagged like a 6 AM line for coffee.

If you have any hoarding tendencies, set designer Michelle Tracey’s landscape of cardboard boxes may provoke serious anxiety. It was glorious, and the interaction with props was extremely well done, but none of that changes the sheer visual impact of STUFF that can absolutely be triggering. If we’re honest, theatre season tickets tend to skew to an older crowd who have most likely had the experience of weeding through a parents’ accumulated possession. That means that for many of the viewers, this show is likely to have a deeper emotional resonance for them than it did for me, and it’s worth acknowledging. If this theme speaks to you, the show will be an appreciated take on a fairly universal experience delivered first person from people who are (more or less) speaking from a place of personal experience. It’s a conversational, deeply accessible show and those have definite value.

My biggest complaint with the show was that I didn’t feel like it delivered any kind of catharsis. I absolutely appreciated why the objects on stage had been held on to, but I didn’t feel like it resulted in any message. When I used to help people with academic writing the question I always gave them was “so what”? In other words, every time you include something, think about what it contributes to the big picture. That was something that ran through my head a lot in this show. I could hear what they were saying about objects, but it didn’t lead me to any conclusion. From what I could tell, the end of the story was that Matt and Naomi were stuck with a house full of huge amounts of stuff from four parents with no real plan to thin it out or get rid of it. If there was more to the ending than this, I would like it to have been clarified a bit. I was left feeling anxious for them, and honestly I have enough stuff worries of my own without needing to borrow anyone else’s.

This is a case of a show where the good parts of it are so good that they make it still worth seeing. If you are a fan of the conversational mode of stand up comedy, this will be appealing for you. If you have had to weed through a parent’s possessions, this will be relatable. It’s great that theatre can speak to a myriad of experiences. I will just be excited for the next production with a narrative thread and a made up story.