Managing emotional baggage has never been more fun
Photo via Belfry Theatre.
Why do we keep certain objects? Sentimental reasons? Familiarity? Never got around to throwing it out? Certain you’ll need it one day? Got into a hobby you swear you’ll get back into? Collections? Intentional and unintentional? Big Stuff attempts to answer this question, though it turns out it’s a much more complicated question than it first appears.
Big Stuff follows comedy duo and real life couple Matt Baram and Naomi Snieckus as they move from America to Canada, grappling with boxes of stuff from both their own lives and the boxes of stuff left behind from their parents’ deaths.
The show is initially framed around the couple attempting to downsize the literal wall of boxes onstage, and discovering that it’s much more difficult than they initially thought, requiring the audience to weigh in on whether they truly need, for example, seven toasters.
The comedy is improvisational, as Baram and Snieckus invite the audience to share their own inexplicable or explicable collections. Then, Baram and Snieckus react, weaving those stories into the performance. These interactions were simple questions: “Do you have any stuffed animals?” “If you have collections, what do you collect?”
Opening night had a very funny improvisation moment, where, after being asked the types of collections people had, people responded ‘sticks’, ‘rocks’, ‘shells’, until it ended with ‘a box of cables.’
At the beginning of the show, the audience was given a slip of paper with the instruction to share an object at home that reminds you of another person. During the show’s opening night, only a few slips were drawn throughout the show, which Baram and Snieckus used as an icebreaker or way to keep the show moving forward. The show began with a drawn slip, and once the audience was comfortable with audience participation, Baram and Snieckus began calling out questions to the audience without slips.
Of course, improv lives and dies off the comedians on stage. Thankfully, Baram and Snieckus are an incredible tag team. They have great comedic chemistry and play off the other extremely well. Baram is presented as comfortable with downsizing, while Snieckus is responsible for their six toasters (with one secret toaster hidden from view), depicting a classic “opposites attract” dynamic.
While they poke fun at one another, their banter never comes across as mean spirited. It comes across as comfortable, only in the way that an established relationship can provide, and it helps the audience get comfortable with their dynamic as well, allowing and encouraging them to participate.
The show itself isn’t entirely improvisational, as the framing device gives the show a strong structure –– grappling with grief. As the show progresses, the audience learns about their relationships with their late parents, and how Baram and Snieckus have chosen to remember them. Those lingering memories can be recovered through specific items that neither can bring themselves to throw away.
Big Stuff manages to balance comedy and grief through the expert weaving of Baram and Snieckus’s dynamic. The central question, why do we keep these things, never truly gets answered. But it lands with a bittersweet moment as Baram and Snieckus resolve to keep moving forward. It’s touching and funny, and definitely worth seeing.
Big Stuff runs until March 21. Tickets can be purchased at the Belfry Theatre’s website.
