Blind Date Review: Snack Music is tasty improv theatre

Snack Music is the first show in the Edge of the Woods Theatre Festival at the Chaffey Hall Studio Theatre. The show, which uses improvised puppetry to weave together true stories from both the performers’ and the audience’s lives, runs July 6 and 7 at 7pm. Tickets are available at the door.

You never know what’s going to happen on a blind date. Ditto for improv theatre. Combining the two makes for an entertaining experience.

For today’s matinee performance (the ‘table top version’) of Snack Music, I had not one but two blind dates. Before you start to judge me, I should mention that they were six-year-old Shannan Pratt and his three-year-old sister Susannah accompanied by their mom Sarah Spring.

Have you ever been to the theatre with a young child? I highly recommend it – there’s nothing quite like seeing the wonder of theatre through the eyes of a child.

So, first, what is Snack Music?

“People tell stories and other people perform your story as puppets,” says Shannan post-show after careful consideration. He’s thoughtful and deliberate for a six-year-old. “It’s really, really funny.”

The performers in Snack Music use a combination of kitchen implements to improvise a wordless (but with ample sounds) retelling of a story from the audience. An onion becomes a character’s head, a head of broccoli a tree, a pot a lawnmower, a sugar dish a cow….you get the idea.

For Shannan, one of the best parts of the show was unplanned, even for improv – a thermos character’s cup head came flying off and landed centre stage. And, as improv does, the show went on amidst a chorus of giggles from the audience.

Even better, and even though it made him squirm a bit, was when mom Sarah got up on stage to tell a story about her and her dad, Bill Spring, in a ski loppet many years ago. He sunk down in his seat and laughed and said, “Oh, no,” when Sarah headed for the stage. But the retelling with an onion-headed mom and an apple-headed Popi, both with fingers for legs? That was funny. Susannah thought so, too, telling me she thought the apple looked just like her grandfather.

And then there was the music. “It was was funny. It has so many settings,” said Shannan.

The kids in the audience got to try their hand at making their own puppets after the show, an activity that Shannan dove right into. And then we got to go backstage to see the hundreds of items the performers have to choose from. Shannan wasted no time in providing some direction. “I wouldn’t find sunglasses in a kitchen,” he said. “You could use that for a circus,” he added of some unicycle-like egg beaters.

Susannah was entranced by the show, and said she didn’t notice the performers were holding the puppets, other than their fruit and vegetable heads.

The final verdict on the show? Five stars from Shannan. And Susannah gave it an enthusiastic head nod when asked if she thought it was good.

The matinee was geared toward kids, but last night (and again tonight and tomorrow, July 6 and 7) there was a more adult-themed performance. My husband, Matt, and 12-year-old daughter, Kalei, were in the audience for that one. “It was hilarious,” said Kalei, whose favourite part was, of course, the most risque of the night. And she, too, cringed when her dad took the stage to tell a story.

Snack Music is skillfull improv and the performers have earned their five-star review from the toughest audience going: kids.

Ticket to Snack Music, and the rest of the festival line-up, are available at the Algonquin Theatre box office or at the door at The Studio Theatre.

For the full festival line-up visit edgeofthewoodstheatre.com.

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