Industry: The Food Must Go Out

This show has excellent actors with lots of food-service and preparation experience, snappy music and choreography, and choice goodies and drinks handed out to lucky audience members. Pretty well all the elements you need for a successful show, I would say. This show snaps and sizzles and is just plain fun. 

The show is mostly light-hearted, although at times I felt a twinge of guilt wondering if I have ever imposed too much on a server or taken him or her for granted (well, I hope I'm not too bad -- at least I never order "hot water with lemon" -- see the show to find out why that matters). You can order drinks before the show, and drink during it (it's held in Edible Canada restaurant on Granville Island, and several of the players also work at Edible Canada). 

We know that in a typical cramped Vancouver restaurant, servers have to be quite lithe and agile to maneuver those trays among those narrow passages. You can see their skills on display here, amplified. But you also get to find out what it's like to be a server with a hangover, in one very funny skit where the hangover is personified as Emmelia Gordon (I really enjoyed her in the recent political comedy "Proud" at the Firehall). 

The actors make clear that food service is a job that allows them to do what they really love -- acting. They are happy when they can put it aside, but they can derive a great deal of satisfaction from facilitating a well-enjoyed meal among family and friends. Cooking is a form of communication and appreciation.