"Freda and Jem's Best of the Week", Buddies in Bad Times Theatre, Toronto, ON

Tonight Gord and I saw Freda and Jem's Best of the Week at Buddies in Bad Times Theatre. 

Freda and Jem are two women who fell in love, had kids and built a family together. When they decide to split up, their family discovers that their love for each other doesn’t have to end at divorce – but it will have to change. A heartwarming story about family making and family breaking.

Source:  Drew Rowsome

I'd read about it in BlogTO last week and it sounded good.  Plus I'd volunteered at my local YMCA back in the 1990s and we had to go through a three month training course. Kathryn Haggis, one of the actresses in the play, was in the course with me.  We've since lost touch but I'm happy to see that she is still working as an actress (she is in Dr. Cabbie, which just came out last week, and My Big Fat Greek Wedding among other things).

Source:  Drew Rowsome

Jem (Kathyrn Haggis) meets Freda (Diane Flacks) and they fall in love.  About twenty years and two kids later (Sadie Epstein-Fine and Stephen Joffe) later, they are breaking up.  No one is happy about it but the fighting has to stop.

Source:  Drew Rowsome

It's a cozy small theatre.  The set was very minimal ... just a raised platform which becomes a bed, a table, etc.

Source:  Drew Rowsome

It was a good story and the actors did a excellent job.  It was funny in parts yet sad in others.  The actors were believable in showing the pain when a family breaks up.   It bounced back and forth from today to the past in flashbacks and it was quite easy to determine where they were.

Lorraine Segato of the Parachute Club accompanied the actors with songs during the play.  I was wondering how it was going to work and I didn't find it intrusive.

I'd recommend this play.