Actors work brilliant overtime in funny ATP production of Liars at a Funeral

Helen Knight, Tyrell Crews, Joel David Taylor and Grace Fedorchuk in Liars at a Funeral at Alberta Theatre Projects through May 11.

A funeral might not sound like a setting for a comedy but Alberta Theatre Projects’ new show Liars at a Funeral expertly turns a family burial ceremony into a funny, engaging show.

Liars tells the story of the small-town prairie funeral of Mavis (Maureen Thomas), and her family, including daughter Evelyn (Helen Knight), granddaughters Dede and Mia (Grace Fedorochuk), Mia’s boyfriend Cam (Joel David Taylor and Evelyn’s friend Frank (Tyrell Crews) as well her ex-husband Wayne (also Tyrell Crews).

There’s also a funeral home employee named Quint (Taylor) and owner Leora (Knight again) who has a tendency to get personally involved with grieving customers.

Liars is full of family dysfunction dressed up as a farce, which means frequent exits and entrances. Almost every single character lies to someone about something, further gumming up the situation -- either that, or they aren’t talking to someone because of past indiscretions that time hasn’t quite healed.

In other words, the family at the heart of Sophia Fabilli’s stem-winding comedy is like a lot of our families: they get along better in theory than in practice so they practice avoiding each other for most of their lives, until grandma’s funeral forces them all into the same room for an afternoon.

There’s a twist to it all that’s pretty much advertised, which is that Mavis hasn’t actually died -- she just wants to create an excuse for the family to get back together to work out their problems.

It’s a pretty good theatrical conceit, and when you layer that onto the the fact that five actors are playing nine different roles, you have the ingredients for a fun show.

I just interviewed another Calgary actor, Bruce Horak, who is legally blind and he said the best advice he got from a Star Trek director (he was cast as a blind character) was to know your lines and not bump into the furniture.

That’s one challenge for a legally blind actor, but you can see how it might be relatable for the cast of Liars, who spend two hours making exits as one character and then re-entering the scene from a different spot on stage in a completely different outfit a minute later.

Kudos to everyone onstage in Liars and some deft directing from Clare Preuss, who directs traffic without causing any pileups!

Taylor is wonderful as Cam the boyfriend of Mia, practicing radical honesty and working as a call centre operator for Bell Media, then switching on a dime to become Quint, a funeral home employee with a dream.

Fedorchuk juggles both parts as two twins who haven’t spoken for a decade and even though she’s not speaking to herself, she grabs your heart.

Knight expertly juggles playing closeted lesbian Evelyn, who has a fake boyfriend (Frank) and then unleashing lusty Leorah, who can’t help mixing business with pleasure.

Crews is wonderful as Frank and Wayne and he just got off stage from Theatre Calgary where he played a British novelist seeing the ghost of his dead wife in Blithe Spirit -- and he’s terrific playing all three. He’s a good listener onstage, patient and generous with the other actors, and always willing to be the butt of the joke.

Best of the bunch is Maureen Thomas as Mavis, who rules the roost with a level-headed, informal human hand even as her fake funeral falls apart one family member at a time.

Liars at a Funeral is a hoot, but Fabilli also knows how to land a heartfelt moment. I just hope someone backstage is helping keep the cast hydrated for this fine, funny show.

At Alberta Theatre Projects through May 11. For more information, go here.