LAST 3 PERFORMANCE THIS WEEKEND!
PERFORMANCE - Sunday - March 5th at 3pm
Reviews for The Best Brothers
" Fast and comic, the script doesn't muddle through the unnecessary, an entertaining and thought provoking play
that maintains a sense of playfulness even in its most moving moments. Well constructed and designed,
The Best Brothers is about learning to love in ways previously unavailable: both Kyle and Hamilton find
new appreciation for themselves and each other, and come to recognize the tenderness
they feel for their mother, an affection they couldn't grasp comprehensively during her lifetime.
The brothers are portrayed with a notable balance of subtlety and comedy, perpetuating naturalness
and offering a satisfying range of emotion. The Best Brothers is a fascinating journey into the process
of character creation through memory and perception-as well as a touching, accessible story about the surprising
triumph of catharsis, even when significance is gleaned from the absurd".
BroadwayWorld.com
Certain plays make you laugh until your sides hurts, while others make you cry like your best friend just died.
The Best Brothers doesn’t do either of those things, but it does make you want a dog.
It makes you ache for one, in fact. If you already have a canine companion, it might make you
want a second. Nova Scotian national treasure Daniel MacIvor’s latest, perhaps his most heartwarming
and potentially crowd-pleasing comedy to date, concerns three brothers:
serious Hamilton, who builds condos; flaky Kyle, who sells condos; and
Enzo, who will tear a condo or any other dwelling to shreds with his teeth if you leave him unattended.
The first two are human; the third, an Italian greyhound. After Bunny,
who is “mother” to all three, dies suddenly in a ludicrous accident at a Gay Pride parade
involving a swarthy drag queen, the brothers must do their best to settle the estate.
Brought up together in a financially privileged but emotionally insecure environment,
Kyle and Hamilton now have a rather distant adult relationship – with the younger brother living a
nomadic existance, and the older one in a stable marriage and on the straight and narrow in every way.
Sleeping sibling rivalry awakens as the two prepare for the funeral and have trouble agreeing on anything –
down to the wording of the obituary. Secrets are gradually revealed over the course of the next few weeks –
but subtle ones, not the usual family-drama tropes. MacIvor has the dynamics between siblings
so right, you’ll feel like he’s been hacking into your Skype chats.
It’s one of the most beautifully bittersweet plays MacIvor has written.
And Bunny’s treatise on dogs and love near the end of the play will convince you that
you desperately need both, no matter what your allergist says.
Point is, if the SPCA temporarily sets up shop across the street from the Studio Theatre,
a whole pack of unwanted dogs will be adopted in by the end of the run. I’ll take one.
The Mail and the Globe
" Fast and comic, the script doesn't muddle through the unnecessary, an entertaining and thought provoking play
that maintains a sense of playfulness even in its most moving moments. Well constructed and designed,
The Best Brothers is about learning to love in ways previously unavailable: both Kyle and Hamilton find
new appreciation for themselves and each other, and come to recognize the tenderness
they feel for their mother, an affection they couldn't grasp comprehensively during her lifetime.
The brothers are portrayed with a notable balance of subtlety and comedy, perpetuating naturalness
and offering a satisfying range of emotion. The Best Brothers is a fascinating journey into the process
of character creation through memory and perception-as well as a touching, accessible story about the surprising
triumph of catharsis, even when significance is gleaned from the absurd".
BroadwayWorld.com
Certain plays make you laugh until your sides hurts, while others make you cry like your best friend just died.
The Best Brothers doesn’t do either of those things, but it does make you want a dog.
It makes you ache for one, in fact. If you already have a canine companion, it might make you
want a second. Nova Scotian national treasure Daniel MacIvor’s latest, perhaps his most heartwarming
and potentially crowd-pleasing comedy to date, concerns three brothers:
serious Hamilton, who builds condos; flaky Kyle, who sells condos; and
Enzo, who will tear a condo or any other dwelling to shreds with his teeth if you leave him unattended.
The first two are human; the third, an Italian greyhound. After Bunny,
who is “mother” to all three, dies suddenly in a ludicrous accident at a Gay Pride parade
involving a swarthy drag queen, the brothers must do their best to settle the estate.
Brought up together in a financially privileged but emotionally insecure environment,
Kyle and Hamilton now have a rather distant adult relationship – with the younger brother living a
nomadic existance, and the older one in a stable marriage and on the straight and narrow in every way.
Sleeping sibling rivalry awakens as the two prepare for the funeral and have trouble agreeing on anything –
down to the wording of the obituary. Secrets are gradually revealed over the course of the next few weeks –
but subtle ones, not the usual family-drama tropes. MacIvor has the dynamics between siblings
so right, you’ll feel like he’s been hacking into your Skype chats.
It’s one of the most beautifully bittersweet plays MacIvor has written.
And Bunny’s treatise on dogs and love near the end of the play will convince you that
you desperately need both, no matter what your allergist says.
Point is, if the SPCA temporarily sets up shop across the street from the Studio Theatre,
a whole pack of unwanted dogs will be adopted in by the end of the run. I’ll take one.
The Mail and the Globe
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TICKETS on sale now -
www.matchouston.org
Next on the intimate MATCH Theater One stage,
opening on February 17, 2017
the Regional Premiere of
The Best Brothers
by Daniel MacIvor
Directed by STUART PURDY
featuring
Jim Salners (L) & Steve Bullitt (R)
From one of Canada’s most prolific artists Daniel MacIvor is an award winning playwright, screenwriter, actor and director and much more. His stage works include His Highness, Never Swim Alone and Marion Bridge. He is the writer, director and star in many independent Canadian films.
Bunny Best met her unfortunate end at a Gay Days parade. Now her two sons, Kyle and Hamilton, have the task of arranging her funeral and carrying for most beloved companion, a troublesome Italian greyhound named Enzo. In the bustle of obituary-writing, eulogy-giving, and dog-sitting, sibling rivalry quickly reaches its peak and years of buried contentions surface.
The Best Brothers is a bittersweet comedy that explores the many ways in which we grieve and the love we find in unexpected places.
“One of the most beautifully, bittersweet plays MacIvor has written.” The Globe and Mail
The Best Brothers will be performed at MATCH Theater One
Midtown Arts and Theater Center of Houston -
3400 Main Street Houston, Texas 77002 www.matchouston.org
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