What do you keep when someone you love is gone, and what can you bear to throw away?
That question drives Big Stuff, a comedy coming to the Arts Club Theatre Company’s Olympic Village Stage at the BMO Theatre Centre from October 14 to November 1.
Fresh from a sold-out Edinburgh Fringe Festival run and an International Fringe Encore Series Edinburgh Prize, Canadian comedy duo Matt Baram and Naomi Snieckus bring their deeply personal show to Vancouver for a three-week engagement.
Directed by co-creator Kat Sandler, the production explores the sentimental power of the objects our loved ones leave behind. Snieckus wants to keep everything. Baram wants to throw it all away. Their opposing instincts become the starting point for a funny, heartfelt look at relationships, grief and the things we choose to carry with us.
Drawing on their experience at Second City and comedy clubs around the world, the pair use improvised storytelling to turn familiar disagreements about clutter into bigger conversations about memory and loss.
For Snieckus, the Vancouver engagement is also something of a homecoming.
“I lived and worked here for several years as a young artist,” she said, noting that Firecracker Department, the company and podcast she founded to support women and non-binary artists, has a vibrant local chapter.
“So, getting to come back with a show that means this much to us, feels a little like coming home.”
Previews begin October 14, with opening night on October 16. Audiences can join a Talkback Tuesday performance on October 27 at 7 p.m., while the November 1 matinee at 2 p.m. will feature VocalEye live description.
Tickets start at $29 and are available through the Arts Club website or by calling the box office at 604-687-1644.
