Nuanced Comic Intimacy with the Boulevard

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Photo via Russ Bickerstaff

Boulevard Theatre presented a pleasant comedy the weekend after Thanksgiving. Directed by Boulevard’s Mark Bucher, playwright Daniel MacIvor’s The Best Brothers took stages at Sugar Maple Tavern and ComedySportz for a couple of shows the day after Black Friday. There’s touching immediacy in a staged reading of MacIver’s clever, little emotional comedy about a couple of brothers dealing with the death of their mother.

Catherine Herbstreit Kalinyen served as narrator in a briskly moving series of scenes that slowly reveal the complex relations between a mother and her two sons. Matt Specht played Hamilton--the older of the two brothers with a firmly centered gravity. Hamilton builds houses. He’s dealing with the loss of his mother from a place of respect and formality that clashes with the memory of a woman who was adventurous and open to the world. Kyle Conner played the younger brother (also named Kyle) who is much more in line with the spirit of his mother. Kyle rents condos. He’s an aesthetically energetic guy who often gets lost in details. There’s unspoken tension between the two brothers. There’s some small part of Hamilton that just might blame his gay brother Kyle for the death of his mother at a gay pride parade.

Bucher has fostered a sharp sense of comic timing between Specht and Conner that swiftly animates some of the tighter moments of dialogue. MacIvor weaves some very intricate bits of characterization around the edges of the drama that Specht and Conner bring to the stage with remarkable poise. Connor’s cunning instinct for unspoken comedy pairs quite well with MacIvor’s comic nuance. Conner’s brilliant use of subtle shifts in comic, subtle silence are a treasure that work strikingly well in any production.

Boulevard Theatre’s production of The Best Brothers ran for one weekend only. For more information about upcoming Boulevard projects, visit facebook.com/boulevardtheatre.