IRL couple and long-term collaborators Naomi Snieckus and Matt Baram met at work, but that work just happened to be Toronto’s legendary comedy institution The Second City. So, you already know you’re in for a double act of serious comedic chops as you settle in for Big Stuff. What’s perhaps less expected is the way this show hits you in the heart as the couple explore grief and loss, centred around the bits and pieces packed away in boxes after a funeral. The little stuff that’s really the big stuff, in other words.  

This isn’t an improv: the script is tight, fast and funny, and the on-stage chemistry is palpable. But they do incorporate tiny fragments of the audience’s experiences as they go along: a loved one’s name, a special object, an anniversary, all beautifully threaded into the story. It’s genuinely thrilling to watch their skills as they move the packed audience from tears to laughter to enthusiastic participation and back again. You should take hankies, and you’re just as likely to use them mopping up tears of laughter... and yet. Snieckus and Baram let the quiet solidarity of grief gently grow until it becomes almost a third character, leading to a devastating final few moments that also feel profoundly unifying. 

Big Stuff, Assembly Roxy, until 30 August, 2.55pm; picture: Dahlia Katz. 

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