Best Food Sideways
Novus Actors
Venue 12
Varscona Theatre
10329 83 Ave., Edmonton
3 ½ Stars
Every year Novus Actors, a team of lawyer-actors, join forces with playwright/director Stewart Lemoine, to put their talents together as a fundraiser for Teatro La Quindicina.
As with many Lemoine productions, Best Foot Sideways immediately feels as if you’ve stepped into a parallel world, one that resembles ours yet functions with different rules.
Within the first five minutes, Blaine Stankar (Mark Facundo), CEO of the Hippincott Foundation states he is divorcing his wife Lavinia Hippincoot (Marissa Tordoff) and resigning as top dog.
Although Lavinia has controlling interest in the foundation, her husband is the power. As part of his abrupt departure, Blaine has gutted the foundation’s finances.
He departs leaving only two weeks of funding to pay staff. Fortunately, two interns have been hired to work for free – Shep (Michael Long) and Trina (Elizabeth Turner).
The foundation’s role is to give away money although it’s never clear to who or what. And none of the regular staff – also family members – have a clue what their job is.
As Shep and Trina receive free rein to explore the intricacies of day-to-day business practices, they discover a foundation-saving solution through a mysterious woman named Begonia (Stacey Grubb).
There’s a fairytale quality to this 70-minute quirky production and Lemoine’s offbeat witticisms are layered throughout.
Lawyer-actors Facundo, Tordoff, Grubb, Jill Gamez, Ed Picard and Jeremy Schick create a powerful presence on stage neatly juxtaposed against professional actors Michael Long and Morinville’s Elizabeth Turner.
Production manager Gaby Phaneuf creates a lighting platform that uses a great many spotlights as opposed to full stage lighting. It’s a great technique to focus different scenes in different spaces.
Unfortunately, the continual darkness is conducive to a nap, as I witnessed with several mature patrons sitting not too far from me. Take a chance, see the show and if need be, rest your eyes.
