The next four performances I saw were all a lot of fun!

Matt & Ben was written by Mindy Kaling and Brenda Withers in 2002, imagining Matt Damon and Ben Affleck before they were famous moviemakers and actors, and it was originally performed by the two female playwrights. Local company Nacho Pals Theatre has cast Melissa Masse as Affleck and Angela James-Findlay as Damon. Their portrayals of the two buddies from South Boston are affectionate and funny. Costuming with backwards ballcaps, body language of bros and best friends, and hints of the canonical accent support the illusion without distracting.

The opening imagines the two of them trying to adapt Salinger’s Catcher in the Rye for the screen, while recounting the unexplained phenomenon of having a brand-new script drop in their laps – a script that has their bylines. The title, Good Will Hunting, is unfamiliar to them, but of course the audience recognizes it as the screenplay that won Damon and Affleck an Academy Award, for the 1997 movie that they also both acted in. Another complication in the characters’ relationship is that Damon is getting callbacks for a theatre role, but trying to hide his success from his friend. I’d read this script years ago and forgotten the details, so I was completely engaged with this performance. Afrah Collier-Potts directed, and it’s playing at Sugar Swing Ballroom.

Blackground is an improv troupe from Atlanta GA, made up of four Black performers, Josh Quinn, Swift Rice, Markis Gallashaw, and Maria (sorry didn’t catch her last name!). Their setup is that they get the audience to suggest and vote on a well-loved movie, then they show us the story of what the Black people were doing in and around the parts we know. Our audience chose Titanic. The Blackground version included Jerome, a character who’s never seen the ocean but wins a ticket in a card game, a high-born woman travelling with her father, some crew members shovelling coal to fuel the steamship (and one whose goal is to make it “steamier”), a preacher and congregation condemning the hubris of the ship-owners’ claims that not even God could sink the ship, Their transitions and tap-outs were very smooth and their show was very funny! At Rapid Fire Exchange.

Jeff & Grundled KNOW FRILLS is a clown two-hander, in which the eponymous characters try to respond to gender role policing in a grocery store. This makes a little more sense than you might think – they’re excited to go to No Frills because it’s cheaper, and then even more excited when No Frills turns into Macho Men’s Market and promises deeper discounts. But of course the performers/creators (Rainier Pearl-Styles and Nicholas Chieffo) bring a lot more nonsense to their problem-solving along the way, using some classic clowning tropes and some inspired commentary on how to be, become, or pass as a ;”real man”. Some bits I appreciated included surprise!juggling (it fit in the story and was very slick), a version of the “performers run through audience” thing, and an absolutely brilliant “audience volunteer” bit that led to everyone in the room who didn’t already know it learning along with the characters how to say motherfucker in ASL. Seriously – I looked up from forming my own fingers into the sign and saw everyone around me doing the same! Jan Henderson directed. Marquesa Dubois and Jenni Stevens provided ASL interpretation.

A Woman’s Guide to Romance Novels is a solo by Holly Brinkman of Vancouver. With a twinkle in her eye, a desk stacked with books, and a few 21st century lecture tools, she invites the audience to celebrate a genre most are already familiar with, creating new excerpts out of her head. She also has guest performers – in the one I saw, it was local burlesque performer LeTabby Lexington. Im also looking forward to seeing Trevor Schmidt’s take on this phenomenon later in the week with Queens of Romance, and I see that Between the Covers is billed as romance-novel-inspired burlesque.