Neil Barclay and Peter Fernandes in One for the Pot.Michael Cooper/Handout/Supplied
- Title: One for the Pot
- Written by: Ray Cooney and Tony Hilton
- Performed by: Peter Fernandes, Martin Happer, Camille Eanga-Selenge, Patrick Galligan, Fiona Byrne, Sanjay Talwar, Jade Repeta
- Director: Chris Abraham
- Company: Shaw Festival
- Venue: Festival Theatre
- City: Niagara-on-the-Lake, Ont.
- Year: Runs until Oct. 11
Critic’s Pick
It’s been a big year for the Shaw Festival. The Niagara-on-the-Lake institution has begun to renovate its Royal George Theatre – for now, a large pile of rubble occupies the venue’s former footprint – and later this year, the company will partner with Harbourfront Centre to bring its productions of Sleuth, A Christmas Carol and an unnamed third show to Toronto.
That’s all exciting. But perhaps this season’s biggest boon is its centrepiece farce, One for the Pot, directed by Chris Abraham and starring Peter Fernandes in a role that requires him to play twins. (And triplets.)
Camille Eanga-Selenge and Fernandes in One for the Pot.Michael Cooper//Supplied
Fernandes and Abraham’s last Shaw show, 2024’s One Man, Two Guvnors, was among the company’s best of all time: The production was side-splittingly funny and deliciously sophisticated in its stagecraft. Fernandes threw himself – literally – into the highly physical role, stumbling across the Festival Theatre stage (and often falling over) with a keen understanding of the play’s slapstick sensibilities.
One for the Pot, written by Ray Cooney and Tony Hilton, is a more predictable piece of writing – don’t try too hard to anticipate the final gag, as you’re likely to get it right – but even so, Abraham’s production triumphs. Michael Gianfrancesco’s opulent set fills every inch of the Shaw’s large Festival Theatre, and makes clever use of forced perspective to further elongate the play’s luxurious living room; Ming Wong’s costumes, as ever, flatter the actors while working in service of the play’s many physical demands.
Patrick Galligan in One for the Pot.Michael Cooper/Handout/Supplied
Plot-wise, we’re just outside London, in the country estate of Jonathan Hardcastle (Patrick Galligan), who has recently placed an ad in the paper summoning the last living member of his late business associate’s family. If the last Hickory Wood shows up for an evening party – and if he can prove he’s the last of his clan – he’ll receive a sizable inheritance.
Enter Billy Hickory Wood (Fernandes), a bumbling idiot who struggles with basic math and social interactions. Accompanied by his scheming friend Charlie (Martin Happer), Billy looks forward to sharing his imminent riches – and hey, maybe they’ll get a nice party out of the evening, too.
For a while, things go okay, plus or minus a desk drawer rigged to shoot open directly into an unlucky crotch. But when a new guest shows up to the Hardcastle estate – an Englishman who looks an awful lot like Billy, but with a posh accent and the ability to add two plus two – it becomes clear that Billy might not be the last Hickory Wood. (Not by a long shot, we soon find out.)
Eanga-Selenge, Kelly Wong and Martin Happer in One for the Pot.Michael Cooper//Supplied
Playing twins is always thankless work for a solo actor, charged with constructing entirely separate psychologies, mannerisms and, in this case, accents, for the siblings in their care. For Fernandes, the task at hand is even harder: Not only must he navigate a fast-multiplying brotherhood, but he must do so while flinging his body into all manner of improbable shapes. Fernandes – also the director of Sleuth – falls in and out of closets, over and around ottomans, up and down a small flight of stairs. In every instance, his antics are impressive (if somewhat concerning for his physical well-being).
For the most part, Abraham elegantly finds solutions to ensure Fernandes can be in two places at once – again, you’ll enjoy One for the Pot most if you don’t look too hard for the seams in its staging – and the production whizzes by like a circus train. Fernandes aside, the cast leans into the play’s silly stakes: Galligan is a hoot as sneaky drunkard Hardcastle, and as romantic interest Cynthia, Camille Eanga-Selenge brings some welcome sincerity to a play that’s anything but.
Most of the Shaw Festival’s programming this year has fallen somewhere around the “meh” mark. But One for the Pot is different – exemplary, even. It’s worth the drive to Niagara-on-the-Lake, and it makes fabulous use of Abraham’s comic sensibilities, which on this occasion fervently embrace the raunchiness baked into Cooney and Hilton’s script.
Hard-hitting theatre? Hardly. But One for the Pot is fun for the lot, and you’d be sacrificing one heck of an afternoon of giggles if you skipped it.