This past year has been a tumultuous one, with some hysterically funny and horrible examples of human dumbassery. Taking on the trends and issues of 2016, Second City Toronto digs deep and burns hard in its sharply funny Come What Mayhem! Mainstage revue.
Written by the ensemble and directed by Carly Heffernan, assisted by Nigel Downer, with music direction by Lee Cohen, Come What Mayhem! features SC Toronto veterans and new faces: Roger Bainbridge, Kyle Dooley, Becky Johnson, Brandon Hackett, Lindsay Mullan and Ann Pornel. Tackling everything from relationships and dating, bullying and consent, Black Lives Matter and racism, politics, transit, health and gender, the cast holds no punches – and delivers each scene with mercurial timing and big laughs in this hilariously scathing look at ourselves and our world.
Stand-outs include the wistful romantic musings of Mullan’s quiet Shoppers Drug Mart clerk, which included audience participation; Pornel and Dooley’s Tinder chat, with its pointed look at how we exoticize race; and Johnson’s hysterically awkward navigation of her date’s (Bainbridge) encounters with his exes. The show also features some thought-provoking moments. Hackett goes from poignant and introspective when date night meets Black Lives Matter (with Mullan) to outrageously funny as the guy who’s proud as heck about his restaurant order (where he also showcases his singing chops); the no-nonsense Pornel (who also brings awesome vocals to a song about her perfect guy) schools her girls’ night out bffs (Johnson and Mullan) on what “fat” is and isn’t; and Bainbridge is electric as the darkly funny game show host of You Oughta Know, which also featured audience participation and consequences as it slammed ignorance about world issues.
Last night’s show ended with a third set, where the ensemble did some rounds of improv; riffing off audience suggestions with witty word play and a scene that took us from a barber shop to France in a wacky trip of hair styling and relationships.
With shouts to set designer Camillia Koo for the awesome Gardiner Expressway structure and graffiti art; and to SM/lighting designer Meg Maguire for keeping things moving along smartly, and snapping us in and out.
Lightning round social satire that burns so good in Second City Toronto’s hilariously insightful Come What Mayhem!
Take a look in the Come What Mayhem! mirror and laugh – it sure as hell beats the alternative. For show times and tickets, check online.
life with more cowbell 