Credit: Emily Cooper
York Theatre to January 7, 2024
Tickets from $39 at 604-251-1363 or www.tickets.thecultch.com
Posted November 25, 2023
Theatre Replacement’s East Van Panto always features a reworked fairy tale that takes place in and around The Drive but this time, co-written by Christine Quintana and Jivesh Parasram, it’s really specific: all the action happens on the corner of Clark and Venables at Fujiya Japanese Foods, across from Mr. Mattress.
It’s hard to say what inspired these East Van writers but perhaps it was the Mr. Mattress storefront, their trucks and their ads that feature a mattress with cartooned arms and legs and a big smiling face planted smack dab in the middle. Mr. Mattress (1964) is an East Van landmark, for sure, as is Fujiya. (For several years I ordered a couple of dozen bento boxes for visiting students from Waseda University (Tokyo) who were homesick for authentic Japanese food.)
Credit: Emily Cooper
Always known for being wacky, this year’s panto is wackier than ever. In a recent interview with Janet Smith for Stir magazine Quintana said, “I definitely feel like we wanted to keep it super, super weird”. She went on to say, “We [herself and Parasram] have very different senses of humour, so it’s a good balance . . . Jiv’s sense of humour is random, wild, off the wall, trippy, and wacky – which is amazing, and not my strong suit.” Parasram says Quintana’s strength is more grounded in character.
So how’s this for random, wild, off the wall, trippy and wacky: the curse put on the mouthy West Van guy (portrayed by Jason Sakaki), who comes up on stage to complain about how long the donor acknowledgements are taking, is that the Enchantress (Maiko Yamamoto) turns him into a mattress. Yep. And does Belle (Steffanie Davis), the finance-minded beauty who gets taken hostage and ends up in Fujiya Japanese Foods, fall in love with mattress guy? Well, am I going to ruin the surprise? Oh no, I’m not!
Credit: Emily Cooper
A curse has also been placed on the employees at Fujiya and they have all been turned into sushi, giving costume designer Alaia Hamer an opportunity to go bananas. There are costumes that look like maki and tofu and rolls and salmon roe – even a bottle of Kikkoman soya sauce. There’s something with a prawn tail trailing behind and a bowl of miso soup. It’s a walking, talking Japanese banquet.
It’s not always easy keeping the narrative clear but the tangents are funny thanks largely to Mark Chavez in a variety of roles including Art Dude, Señor Tamaki and King Skunk. You won’t believe what King Skunk and his Skunklings get up to. Imagine a stink-making machine carrying 68,000 gallons of “stink juice” if you can. And I won’t divulge where that stink juice comes from. Eeuw.
Credit: Emily Cooper
As always, musicians Veda Hille and June Mirochnick play fast and loose with more than a dozen pop songs ranging from Nat King Cole’s Nature Boy, through Billie Eilish’s Happier Than Ever to the Eurythmics Sweet Dreams (for the skunk numbers, naturally). Rhyming schemes for the re-jigged lyrics are lessons in word-bending. All the singers are good but Davis has a simply spectacular voice; she brings the house down every time she delivers a song.
Getting this cast of about two dozen busting some moves is choreographer Amanda Testini. Set design is by Lauchlin Johnston with scenic illustration – like the huge maneki-neko (Good Fortune cats with moveable arms that you see in Japanese restaurants and elsewhere ) by Cindy Mochizuki. And all this is pulled together by director Anita Rochon – like herding skunks, I imagine.
Much of the humour is broad but I love the subtler stuff like West Van guy/mattress guy/Beast responding to the voice of his father. “I’m in the sky”, says Dad. Solemnly, “Are you dead, Dad?” Irritated, “No, I’m on my way to Zurich.”
Credit: Emily Cooper
And strange as it may seem, therein lies the message of this season’s panto: the West Van dad prides himself on once having made up his mind, he never changes it: “I don’t flip for nobody.” It’s a stretch, but the flipping/changing one’s mind is a play on flipping a mattress. And, like father, like son, Mattress guy never flips either until he learns from Belle that it’s a good thing and he encourages everyone – us included – to say, “No to no-flipping”. Keeping an open mind. Be willing to change it.
Presented by the Cultch and Theatre Replacement, this panto is nuttier than ever. The narrative gets so stretched and teased apart, I think the story frequently gets lost in a cloud of skunk farts but the opening night crowd riotously, noisily loved it.
The panto has become a much-loved Christmas tradition and it will sell out quickly. I’m so grateful to everyone involved in the making of Theatre Replacement’s East Van Panto who so joyfully give their time and energy for more than fifty performances over six weeks. It’s truly a gift from all of them to all of us.