A very delightful and poignant romp! My favorite characters were Axel (the actor boyfriend of title character Maggie’s older sister) and Maggie’s father, Tom. Axel’s delivery was just very hilarious and I really enjoyed watching him deal with Maggie’s older sister Wanda and all the craziness that ensues during the play (I felt like I kind of identified with him too).

I also kind of identified with Tom (Maggie’s father) merely from the perspective of him being a married man, but he had these really great moments where he just had these stares-into-space reactions that were hilarious.

Heck, as long as I’m being honest, I identified with Maggie a little bit as I was worried about my parent’s empty nest syndrome when I got married.

For the second time, we chose to sit in the small side section which, while not “ideal” for seeing the show as optimally designed (1316 Cabrillo is a wonderfully intimate, but small space), was an incredibly rewarding experience. Analyzing it after the fact, Laura pointed out that it’s like watching the show from backstage (which any good director generally frowns upon as generally when people do it, they don’t check their sightlines and the audience sees them). One especially moving moment was watching a big confrontation/revelation from Russell (Maggie’s fiancée) and even though we were behind Wanda, I was able to see her reaction (single tears slowly falling from her face) and was just gob-smacked at how powerful it was for me.

Fun fact (from a review we found in the lobby): because it’s a Canadian play, the director decided to take the cast out for a “traditional” Canadian meal, including “poutine” which is (apparently) French Fries covered in brown gravy and cheese curds. While they were at the eatery, they were randomly interviewed and wound up on a Canadian Primetime news programme! Yay international publicity! 😀

Ticket Type: General Seating