Thursday Theatre Review: BETTER PARTS

UPDATE: Additional show added - Friday October 19

One of the first shows I saw in Toronto when I moved here was Nicole Stamp's BETTER PARTS. It was part of the Theatre Passe Muraille's Stage 3 festival in 2005.

Well, now it's back, but only on for one night - Thursday October 18 - so I wanted to make sure you knew about it, because it really is worth seeing. UPDATE: If you missed the show Thursday night, it's been held over for one more performance, Friday October 19, at 11pm.

When I saw it I was all kinds of impressed. The show was funny, sexy, and thought-provoking. It's billed as "BETTER PARTS: stand-up comedy and jazz double-bass, together at last." So, it's a little bit of everything really.

Since I'm talking about a production I saw two years ago, and a production that is yet to happen, this is some kind of strange review/preview hybrid...

The show is hard to describe.

It's a one-woman show, except, there are two people on stage. One plays upright bass, while the other (Stamp) riffs on-stage about what she wishes, or imagines, her life to be.

It's short and sweet, running just under half an hour.

It's got a bit of a beat-poetry vibe to it, with rhyming and singing and all 'round deliciousness in sounds.

If you're worried that beat-poetry and rhyming prose is going to be hokey, I promise, it's not. If you think beat-poetry and rhyming prose is going to be cool, I promise, it is. The show is a treat for both the eyes and ears.

This performance is going to be at Bread and Circus, a new bar / performance venue in Kensington Market, so it will also be interesting to check out the new space.

Details:
- BETTER PARTS runs for one night only - Thursday October 18, 2007
UPDATE - Another show has been added, you can now see this on Friday October 19 at 11pm
- Show starts at 9pm (and runs for around 25 minutes)
- Playing at the Bread and Circus (193 1/2 Baldwin Street)
- The performance is Pay What You Can

Photo of Nicole Stamp by Aviva Armour-Ostroff