‘Tis the season, and the Howland Company, in association with Tarragon Theatre, is bringing the holiday spirit from the outside in with the return – with a holiday twist – of their “Best of Toronto Fringe” winning hit, Entrances and Exits: Home for the Holidays, created by Ruth Goodwin and Liz Johnston, and directed by Paolo Santalucia.
In this welcome reprieve from the dark, bustle-filled days of December, audiences can expect to laugh loudly and often. And this restorative experience begins before the show in the courtyard space of the Tarragon Theatre, which has been decked out in festive cheer. Hot cocoa, marshmallows roasted on an open fire, holiday-themed cocktails and holiday music over a loudspeaker set the mood for an impending holiday medley of singalong songs, farcical scenes and rapid-fire improv. Outdoors and in, it’s a ridiculously fun time.
Drawing inspiration from classic TV programs like The Judy Garland Christmas Show and The Carol Burnett Show’s Christmas with Carol, this comedy-with-music is a retro modern improv take on nostalgic holiday specials. In improv style, the audience is asked at the top of the show to identify the occasion and name some aspects of a house party that is about to take place on stage. In the form of a farce improvised over the next hour, the cast will bring to hilarious life this party . . . which is stuffed to bursting with extemporaneous relationship, work and life calamities.
Act One takes place in the living room of a family house, with a door in the back connecting to an unseen bedroom, into and out of which the characters pass as the story unfolds. In Act Two, the setting switches to that previously unseen bedroom. Now we watch what was simultaneously unfolding in there during Act One – punctuated, of course, by the titular entrances and exits and sounds we’ve already experienced. Put the two acts together and you have a coherent tale — not to mention a funny one—which even comes accompanied by an improvised piano soundtrack delivered by music director Scott Christian to enhance the action and amp up characters’ overwrought emotions.
Armed with the audience’s suggestions, the cast delivers a high-octane romp with rapid-fire dialogue that is by turns silly, sly, hilarious and outright absurd. Entrances and Exits works well – really well — because the show boasts a cast of all-star Toronto-based improvisers. If at some point in the last few years you’ve been to The Second City, Bad Dog Theatre, watched Toronto-filmed television, or seen shows at the Toronto Fringe, Sketchfest or Toronto theatres, then you’ve seen all or some of these gifted performers. They include: Ruth Goodwin (The Howland Company, Global TV’s Private Eyes), Liz Johnston (The Second City), Sharjil Rasool (The Second City), Conor Bradbury (Sex-T Rex, Bad Dog Theatre), Paloma Nuñez (The Second City) and Brandon Hackett (The Second City). The cast enjoyed a special guest appearance from Colin Mochrie (Whose Line is It Anyway?) during the first four shows, and other surprise special guests will follow in his footsteps.
The cast are uniformly funny – and unflappable — which is the key to the show’s success. The intrepid improvisers have a few basic roles and relationships defined at the start, but their collective labour is to construct the show’s symmetry in real time. Taking into account those audience suggestions, they find their path up a comedy mountain in the first half. Then they give way to a raucous half-time singalong led by improvisational singer Stephanie Malek and Christian. The duo lend an infectious note of nostalgia and camaraderie to the show, and the singalong makes the audience an extension of the party that is unfolding (ok, devolving) on stage. Most critically, the singalong provides time for the cast to huddle backstage to recall the key entrances, exits, sounds and stops of the first half. For in the second half, they must descend the other side of the plot without missing any of the marks established on the way up. It’s an elegant high-wire act with lots of room for these gifted improvisers to riff, react, drop challenges for one another, and teeter on the edge of falling . . . before pulling one another back from the brink in the nick of time.
Entrances and Exits: Home for the Holidays is an inventive, unpredictable and welcome addition to the holiday programs now available in the city. You’ll find it a tonic for the spirit during the rush of the season. And The Howland Company might find it worth their while to make it an annual staple of their performance roster.
Reserve tickets for Entrances and Exits: Home for the Holidays on Tarragon Theatre’s website.
© Arpita Ghosal, SesayArts Magazine, 2022
