This show is bigger than it looks and exactly as big as it feels.
The set-up for Big Stuff is straightforward. Married comedians Matt Baram and Naomi Snieckus tell us that, with the death of the last of their parents, they’ve found themselves with a lot of things. Snieckus wants to keep them all (“My grandmother lives in that crochet hook!”) and Baram wants to throw them all out (“We have seven toasters, and we don’t even eat bread anymore!”)
So there you have it: the narrative tension and the relationship. Baram and Snieckus gently chide one another, simultaneously celebrating their relationship and sending it up. Baram refers to their dog, who sleeps between them, as a cock-a-blocka-poo.
From these basics, Baram and Snieckus, who wrote the show and credit their director Kat Sandler with co-creation, have developed something larger: a shared ritual. When you arrive in the theatre, there are pencils and little white cards on the back of every seat that come with an invitation to write down an object you have at home that reminds you of someone you love. They collect the cards then, during the show, select cards at random, chat with the writers, and integrate their stories into the performance. (Baram and Snieckus met when they were both working at the improv and sketch-comedy company Second City in Toronto.)
The authenticity of the audience-generated material is often moving, sometimes hilarious. Audience member Melody’s object was a silver tea set she inherited from her grandmother. “She took care of me when I was sick, so we were close”: because it’s true, that simple statement carries weight. Melody’s Norwegian gran was also a chain-smoker who spoke of dancing with princes. You can’t make this stuff up.
When Baram and Snieckus, who have been married 12 years, asked if any couple in the audience had been together longer, we met Nancy and Cory, who have been together 52 years. They met when one was a nurse in Halifax, the other a biology student. “We invented the lesbian.” Everybody in the theatre loved them. How could you not?
The interactions with audience members will be different with every performance, of course, and that’s a beautiful thing.
But the more structured parts of the show also really work. Matt talks about how, when he was a kid, his family would drive through the Rockies on holidays, and his mom always knew when his ears popped: “Your ears just popped.” It was magic to him. He has since figured out that she probably knew because her ears had just popped, but he’s still grateful to her for creating the wonder. And he’d rather have that memory than all her stuff.
I laughed during a lot during this show: it’s amazing how densely packed the comedy is. I was grateful for being held in the warmth of a live assembly. And I appreciated Big Stuff’s explicit and implicit invitations to honour my dead by remembering them. That part felt cleansing.
BIG STUFF Written and created by Matt Baram and Naomi Snieckus. Directed and co-created by Kat Sandler. A Baram and Snieckus production presented by the Arts Club. Running on the Olympic Village Stage in the BMO Theatre Centre until November 1. Tickets and information.
PHOTO CREDIT: (Photo of Matt Baram and Naomi Snieckus by Dahlia Katz. Set: Michelle Tracey. Lighting: Emilie Trimbee.)
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