Fresh kibbeh with tahini, hummus, warm pita, and grape leaves. Macaroni and cheese. A popsicle on a hot day; specifically one of those red, white, and blue ones, preferably from the local ice cream truck. Everyone’s comfort foods are as unique as they are; it’s reflective of a life lived and the food we take joy in. But what happens when the joy is taken away from that food? When cooking stops becoming the fun it used to be? Zorana Sadiq’s Comfort Food, directed by Mitchell Cushman, takes a deep dive into our relationships with food, and with each other, and what happens when that all starts to crumble.

Bette and her son, KitKat, used to have a YouTube channel where they’d cook together. Bette jokes that it was KitKat who really ran the kitchen, and she was just his sous-chef. Now she’s got her own network cooking show “Comfort Food” and her viewers are often curious about how Kit’s doing. Kit is passionate about climate change, he’s involved in a club at school, yet he constantly feels like no one’s taking things as seriously as he is. When he’s invited onto his mother’s show, he certainly makes an interesting use of her platform which causes ripple effects for both him and Bette. Soon both mother and son begin to lose sight of their initial goals and desires, and it takes a life-threatening incident to get them both on track again.

The intensity of this play pleasantly surprised me; from the title you think you’re in for a sweet, maybe even sentimental play, about a mother and son. Instead, we get a narrative about the perils of making it “big time” and what happens when you no longer work for yourself, the ways the internet can affect our mental health both positively and negatively, how radicalization can happen in the blink of an eye. But most of all we see what happens when we lose ourselves: the falling into old habits, letting our emotions get the better of us, letting go of all of our boundaries until what should be ours is no longer. Both Bette and KitKat get pushed well past who they truly are to their absolute breaking points, and it’s only after they’re able to realize this that the signs of healing begin to show through.

Cushman’s expertise with immersive theatre is clearly evident in the practical design and overall feel of Comfort Food. “On Air” and “Applause” signs hang above the set which looks like the kitchen of most people’s dreams. The large doors which initially appear to be a pantry open up to become KitKat’s room; a stereotypical teenage boy’s room with a mysterious purple glow coming from one of his lockers. There’s a large island which not only can separate into two, but at one point you can see into the back where all of the food and props are stored. Sim Suzer’s set design makes a great use of the Studio Theatre at Crow’s; nothing empty and there are hidden gems all over the set.

Sadiq shines as Bette; the stark contrast of her on air persona versus her at home one is deftly portrayed. There is so much about Bette that I feel like people can relate to: whether it’s her trying to navigate mothering a teenager, or the pressure of being in the public eye, or something as simple as not wanting to cook dinner when you’ve been cooking all day. At the performance I attended, there was an audience member behind me who was speaking rather loudly during the first few minutes, and Sadiq handled the interjections beautifully. Noah Grittani makes a wildly impressive foray onto the Toronto theatre scene as KitKat. Playing several other characters along with his main role, Grittani constantly transforms before our eyes, consistently being the foil to Sadiq’s Bette. In some of KitKat’s darker moments, Grittani becomes truly frightening; his loneliness and passions get the better of him and I think it’s a place we’re all afraid we could go one day. Yet this darkness makes the ending all the more sweet.

The comfort of Comfort Food comes in the form of hope: in a perfectly warm loaf of sourdough bread and a lemon tree just beginning to fruit. In this return to themselves, Bette and KitKat also return to their roots, their true passions, and each other. Though the future is always uncertain, you get a sense that this family is going to make it through in a whole new way than they have before.

Comfort Food runs in the Studio Theatre of Streetcar Crowsnest until June 8. For more information and tickets, visit: https://www.crowstheatre.com/whats-on/view-all/comfort-food

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Cover Photo: Noah Grittani and Zorana Sadiq. Photo by Dahlia Katz.

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