Plays in Cafes - Good Music, Bland Comedy
Written by Alex Karolyi, Plays in Cafes are two plays about Frank (Craig Burnatowski) and Shelly (Alex Karolyi) and their relationship which centres around a cafe. The first play tracks Shelly’s desire to reignite their relationship with fun activities (like playing cards!) while Frank obsesses over sex and returning to their big, expensive house. During the second play, Frank proposes and Shelly plans their wedding diets.
Chris Olson joins Karolyi and Burnatowski for the musical introductions to each play and the three are lively, energetic and funny singers. Olson, who plays guitar and sings some of the songs, has excellent stage presence and a wonderful sense of musical comedy. Karolyi and Burnatowski sing two excellent love songs to each other, and I found myself yearning for more of these intimate serenades throughout the show.
The venue is a great fit for this play. It was very funny imagining a Commercial Drive-based couple having a relationship revolve around the same cafe where they go to have all their serious life conversations.
Burnatowski and Karolyi fit their characters well—they play them with confidence and experience. They had decent comedic timing with the jokes they were given.
But those jokes and the whole script are whiter and blander than Wonderbread toast served at a South Carolina all-mens country club brunch. The gender-driven caricatures seem built from all the sexist stereotypes you could think of from 1959. Shelly is ignorantly obsessed with women’s interest magazines and dieting, while Frank is predictably preoccupied with sex and food. The stakes don't get bigger than these wasp-y fixations, so the action flatlines early on. Although the comedy occasionally made me chuckle, hiding pizza in your pants and Cosmo's relationship tips are gags we've seen again and again in t.v. sitcoms. When I see theatre, I expect it to give me a better reason to pay for a ticket that's worth two months of my Netflix subscription.
At first, I thought this play was a parody of those t.v. stereotypes, but the characters' shallowness never comes off as ironic. There are a few good, honest moments--Karolyi pulls off the physicality of a hysteric girlfriend very well, and Burnatowski plays a hilarious frustrated boyfriend. They would make excellent sketch comedians, and this script would make an excellent comedy sketch if it was shorter and more aware of its genre.
If the director and playwright plan to continue developing this play, I would love to see the musical portion expanded. The characters are much more exciting when they're singing and using the whole space of the venue.
If you want to get bang for your buck on the Commercial Drive leg of your Fringe-a-thon, try to see Plays in Cafes which performs at the Cafe Deux Soleil, but I wouldn't recommend making it your only stop of the day.