Snack
Snack PB&J Theatre Factory at The Garden Theatre, Winter Garden FL
You can say a lot without words, and “Snack” exploits slap stick and sight gags to make fun of food, love and life. The silence is filled with Mack Sennet style piano music as scraggly Brandon Roberts shuffles out of the darkness to his job at The Bracketing Device Café. Mike Koenig shuffles in with equal sloth until he puts on his Diner Boy Hat and pops into action, sweeping floors, taking orders and juggling chairs with Roberts in an OSHA approved manner. A steady stream of customers passes though until Diner Boy falls in love with a Distant Woman reading a book. He shuts down the shop just as hungry Business Guy Paul Braillard steps up for a snack. His stomach grumblings could be hunger but MIGHT be an enormous fart joke, and with the Diner on hold as Diner Boy chases Distant Woman, Business Guy heads to the airport. This open the door for PB&J to run thought 20 or so silent skits. Some are just silly, but a few stand out. The Airport Security Lock Down Skit and the No Food In Flight Dream Sequence were the best, although Jason Horne as a fly doing backstrokes in a soup bowl was nothing to sneeze at, either.
I haven’t been to a kiddie matinee in decades (maybe longer) but the audience for the show I saw was about 40% under 10 years old. I was dreading the chaos, but all the action stayed on stage as PB&J held the crowds dangerously short attention span. In a prop heavy show, there were numerous scene changes, but they all went seamlessly and while we were threatened with a banana peel slip they pulled that punch, and I may never actually seen a person slip on a skin in real life. After we ran all the way around the block, Diner Boy got a date with Distant Girl and Business Man finally got back to the diner and when presented with his sandwich, he was out of cash. A tense moment followed – would he get something to eat? The question hung in the balance until a kid in the front row yelled “Take It!” Problem solved. While this is no Death of A Salesman, it’s a fun, family friendly show that doesn’t require much thought. Take the kids and hammer a few glasses of wine back at the bar during intermission.
For more information on The Garden Theatre, please visit http://www.myspace.com/gardentheatre or http://wgtheater.org
PB&J posted pictures and more information at www.myspace.com/pbjfactory
