My Dinner With Arby

Out Of Body Physical Theatre—Dave Barber Cinematheque

I was not sure what to make of this show when I saw it. As you walk into the theatre, the performers (Baird Duncan and Jackson Thompson) are on stage in their clown personas getting some help from various audience members to help ‘dramaturg’ the show. They then start the show. Two old friends who have not seen each other in a long time sharing a meal and talking about various things.

Some of the topics covered, were I suspect suggestions from the audience, but as those were not really spoken out loud, like at an improv show, I can only guess that was why a discussion of Manga was on the table (a topic I know nothing about).

In their discussion on the arts and performing, among other things, they do talk about doing a show “My Dinner with Andre in clown”. OK, that and the show title kind of clicked a bit. I think my key befuddlement was because my familiarity with the movie “My Dinner with Andre” was at a level below that of even “elevator pitch”. So it wasn’t until after the show, when I looked at IMDB to find out more about the movie and fill in some gaps that I could understand the show a bit more. I also learned it is a somewhat polarizing movie where people either love it or hate it. I fear ‘My Dinner With Arby’ might suffer the same fate. I personally didn’t hate it, but it was definitely not my cup of tea.

Murray Hunter