A wolf in A Quiet Sip of Coffee clothing

Just as the hairy beast lurks within the human shell of the werewolf, there are at least two intriguing plays struggling to burst through the skin of A Quiet Sip of Coffee (Or, This is Not the Play We've Written). I attended A Quiet Sip of Coffee just after a full moon so that may explain why the piece, while entertaining and occasionally brilliant, just didn't howl.

The SummerWorks catalogue does a succinct and relatively accurate summary of A Quiet Sip of Coffee's plot:

In 2004. Anthony Johnston and Nathan Schwartz, self-proclaimed "gay/straight best friends duo," wrote a prank letter to a fundamentalist organization asking for funds to produce their play Never Cry Wolfman. To their surprise, the letter was answered, and they were invited to workshop the piece at the group's retreat in rural British Columbia - on the condition that they also spend two weeks participating in gay conversion therapy . . .

The title A Quiet Sip of Coffee refers to the best part of this production: the counselling sessions. Johnston, the gay half of the duo, slides in and out of characters with chameleon-esque ease, and their heartbreak and desperation is beautifully evoked. It is subtle and strong work in the midst of a lot of slapstick. Schwartz, alternating between portraying a version of himself and Jonathan the camp counselor, perfectly illustrates the banality of evil. These sections are masterful and touching but are constantly interrupted with further disruption of the fourth wall by gags, skits, improvs and asides that, alas, are not as clever or funny as the duo seems to think they are.

The second intriguing play buried under the onslaught of theatrical techniques and obfuscation concerns the relationship between the two and the difficulties of a straight/gay friendship. Johnston and Schwartz seem very comfortable with each other - physically and emotionally - and sync up with almost symbiotic timing, but they also on occasion reveal cracks and fissures in the relationship. Does Johnston nurse an unrequited attraction to Schwartz? Is Schwartz really so unhappy in his heterosexual marriage? Did the events at the camp actually lead to a seven-year separation? Did Schwartz actually perform a blow job on Johnston to prove, "There is no deep-seated meaning to gay sex?" 

Like the blow job, all these questions and dark tensions are tossed aside or joked away before reaching any sort of climax or even explicit exposure. It's hard to tell if it is meant as an elaborate tease or if the duo and their collaborators are just avoiding the messy but potentially rewarding work of dealing with the issue and their emotions. It is odd that their claims, albeit in an exaggerated pitch, of being able to reach the theatre audience because, "We're credible, we're real," prove to be exactly opposite. 

A Quiet Sip of Coffee begins with a winking aside that warns that what we are about to see might be a documentary or might be fiction. The film An American Werewolf in London - another work of art that toys with the concept of reality - is excerpted, and plays and skits digress throughout the main thrust of A Quiet Sip of Coffee, calling all that we are to experience into question. As a major theme it feels like a cop-out and the material would be strong enough to stand on its own if the ambiguities were allowed to linger and sink in on their own power.

Many of the thematic ingredients are in place with the werewolf metaphor holding all together; the satire of anti-gay propaganda for children and bombastic Broadway scores being hilarious; many of the jokes landing unerringly; and the attractive duo's propensity for shedding their clothes (there is another sort of full moon that makes a crucial and dramatic appearance), adding clever and thought-provoking flavour notes to the proceedings.  However other sections fall flat with the ersatz improv sections falling dismally and the play within the play, while meant to be an example of youthful pretension and ineptitude, drags on far far too long. It is as if someone decided that the core story and relationship wasn't strong enough, or entertaining enough, so layers of deconstruction and "let's put on a show" theatre about making theatre were layered on.

Or the central story and relationship was so radioactive that they were just unable to deal with it. 

Johnston and Schwartz are both astoundingly energetic, appealing and obviously wildly talented, so A Quiet Sip of Coffee offers many moments of pleasure. A bit more insight and daring - and a little less hipster attitude and humour - and a quiet sip will be an overflowing cup. Unleash the hairy beasts please.