CAFé CAFé PARIS is bitter...sweet @ TSC.

CAFé CAFé PARIS Produced by Nouveau International. Playwright and director Alain Mercieca. Presented at Théâtre Saint Catherine March 18 to 27. The sixth chapter in Montreal’s only «cabaret sitcom» is bitter sweet, as CAFé CAFé ‘PARIS’ is the stand-alone final chapter to this bilingual comedy series that put Theatre 314 on the map before its demise.

After a full season of cynicism, revolution, hockey, contemporary dance, gargoyles and all-in-all allongé love, the CAFé CAFé gang is back, this time being transported from Montreal to Paris via a wild dream of poet Vlad MaHoney’s. Vlad’s Paris is a topsy-turvy burlesque, where poets are rich and corporate types struggle to survive. As always, love rains down from the grey skies in this farce about the destiny of society and the ability of humans to persist and follow their dreams, no matter how small, or futile they are.

Enter with an open mind and a light heart and you'll be entertained by this light in plot creative sketch comedy driven production. Layered with a great functional set design, appropriately assigned costumes, and very well produced original video projection, this heavy on the special effects production is pure comedic camp at its best. A well balanced Anglo-Franco text is cleverly written to give all of the characters their equal moments to show off the individual talents of the cast. Stand outs are those of both: Caroline Braun, as the waitress who has big dreams of becoming a pop-star, she pops off the stage with her bravado performance; Massimo Cannistrato as the CAFé owner delivers a consistent performance with a noteworthy moment when he rants off to his daughter.

Like the lyrics from Adam Lambert's controversial AMA début hit song "...I'm here for your entertainment..." These artists are obviously having at least as much fun playing on stage if not more than the audience members in the seats. CAFé CAFé features a motley crew of local rising talents and Montreal improve main stays with/avec: Sandi Armstrong, Jean-Philippe Brassard, Caroline Braun, T.J. Harris , Katie Leggitt , Massimo, Catherine Moreau et Maïté Sinave. Original music by: Joe McLean. Video by: Mark Louch, Glyn Jones & Annie Ouellette. GO C IT!