Who would have thought that two Second City improv alumni could create a play about loss that is both humorous and poignant? Husband-and-wife team Matt Baram and Naomi Snieckus have done just that with Big Stuff, which explores their own healing journey after the loss of their parents.
Created and performed by Baram and Snieckus, Big Stuff is at the Arts Club’s Olympic Village Stage until Nov. 1. The couple, who met at Second City, now travel across the country with their show, which fuses performance and conversation art. Audience participation is invited (not mandatory).
As you walk into the intimate theatre, you are met by a towering wall of storage boxes, some open, some closed, stacked asymmetrically and full of various bits and bobs – a lamp, an old record player, a radio, a toaster, framed needlepoint. On your seat, you find a card asking you to “write down an item you have at home that reminds you of someone close to you.” The cards are collected by the couple as they move up and down the aisles chatting with folks prior to the show’s start.
Back on stage, Baram sets out a large box marked “Dump Box.” Then the couple regales the audience with anecdotes about all the stuff they had to shlep back to Toronto when they returned there from Los Angeles.
Baram is pragmatic and can easily let things go, while Snieckus is more of a hoarder and wants to keep everything. She can find reasons to keep granny’s crochet hook (although she doesn’t crochet) and empty boxes (you never know when you will need one) and she has at least seven toasters (although they don’t even eat bread).
The couple have amazing chemistry and play off each other brilliantly with witty repartee. They take various items from the storage boxes behind them, provide background information about each item and then ask the audience if they should, “keep it” or “dump it.” We shout out our choices.
After a few rounds of this game, the actors pull out random cards from those collected, go into the audience (as the lights go up) and get the writer to explain why they chose the item and why it was so meaningful to them. Opening night cards included a red lacquer table, a homemade cabbage patch doll and a trivet. The stories behind each item were touching – a verbal unpacking of all the “stuff” we carry with us, both physical and emotional.
Baram and Snieckus, who have been married 12 years, surveyed the audience for a couple who had been together longer than that. Opening night had a husband and wife celebrating their 60th anniversary. While the husband was giving a detailed narrative of their first meeting, his wife piped up that this was “too much sharing.” You could not have scripted that better. The audience loved it.
Finally, Snieckus talks about taking care of her dad during the last years of his life and the little things that remind her of him. One of her favourite items is a red, plaid lumberman’s jacket he loved to wear at their Muskoka cottage. She lovingly caresses it. There is silence. She calls out his name, “Victor,” and then encourages audience members to call out names of those they have lost. Slowly, people start, first one, then another and then another. I called out “Chaim,” the name of my father. It was cathartic. I was sitting among 200 strangers and, for a moment, felt close to every one of them. It was such a feeling of shared compassion and humanity. It struck me that maybe, just maybe, this is exactly what we all need during these turbulent times.
For tickets to Big Stuff, which is directed by Jewish community member Kat Sandler, visit artsclub.com or call 604-687-1644.
Tova Kornfeld is a Vancouver freelance writer and lawyer.
