I saw Stiff and Sons by Aidan Gouveia for Bare Theatre Collective directed by Daniel Reale at the Al Green Theatre on Saturday evening.  I haven’t laughed so much for all the wrong reasons since I saw Death of Stalin.  The background is a failing family owned funeral parlour.  Darren Stiff is having an affair with his brother David’s wife Pam; an aspiring Hollywood actress.  There is much shagging; mostly in coffins.

The pivotal scene comes quite early on when Dan gives his11 year old  daughter Erin a toy embalming kit.  She and her permanently attached glove puppet Karen decide to try this out on the Russian cleaner Olga, who has just passed out after a heavy vodka session.. but Darren has swapped the toy embalming kit for a real one…

Olga’s very profitable funeral triggers a plot to increase business using Erin (and Karen)’s considerable talents and lack of scruple.  All this is engineered by Darren; who manages to keep David unconscious in a coffin while his plot and increasingly torrid affair play out.  The local media and police get suspicious.  Slowly the pace cranks up to full on farce, with multiple characters succeeding each other to a dramatic denouement and a very creepy coda.

The writing is super tight and not over indulgent.  Reale shows a rare gift for directing farce.  The pacing is just right.  The no budget set made of cardboard boxes is reminiscent of Aria Umezawa’s early productions in doing so much with so little.  The acting is excellent.  The standout for me was Izzi Nagel as Erin/Karen.  She plays everyone’s idea of the perfect 11 year old daughter… if you think of everyone as the Addams family and Manon Ens-Lapointe is athletic, sexy and very funny as Pam.  The guys are very good too.  Tim Walker as David, Jack Rennie as Darren and, especially, Jonas Trottier who plays everyone else; male and female, are all excellent.  Jack Rennie doubles up as fight director which is no sinecure given the chaotic final scenes.

Stiff and Sons is part of the Toronto Fringe and runs at the Al Green Theatre until July 14th.  It’s black farce at its best.