Reviews
EVERY LITTLE NOOKIE Studio Theatre/Stratford Festival
By
Aug 3, 2022, 23:11

Stratford Festival
Through October 11
EVERY LITTLE NOOKIE Studio Theatre/Stratford Festival

Everyone in the generation of children moving into the adult world knows they know more than their parents about almost everything, not just computers.
Ask them.
“Every Little Nookie” is a kinky response, a staid suburban, affluent White couple and the mixed race and sexual orientation crowd surrounding their daughter, in her life Downtown.
It’s clearly Toronto and some ring suburb, although it probably applies everywhere.
Mom and Dad, Margaret (Marion Adler) and Kenneth (John Koensgen) have a cottage in the country they retreat to on weekends.
As soon as they leave, daughter Annabel (Rose Tuong); her partner Grace (Khad Roberts-Abdullah); her non-binary friend Smash (Stephen Jackman-Torkoff), who’s also getting it on with Grace; and, Crystal (Veronica Hortigüela), a sex worker, go to work.
They run swingers events whose fees are supporting them in a sleazy apartment.
Unfortunately for this sex for money environment, Mom and Dad come home early and find out what’s going on.
Clearly, that means it’s all over.
Not exactly, since Mom becomes interested in the lifestyle and getting it on with Smash.
Dad doesn’t object.
Half of Sunny Drake’s script revolves around the sex on Michelle Tracey’s set design of a wood slide bed.
The other half is an attack on greedy developers and Kenneth is a lawyer for them.
Then, Annabel decides on a move to the other team, when she meets single father Matt (Richard Lam).
This gets tangled, particularly when the Downtown group is evicted and they can’t find a place they can afford.
It’s a little like reading the Toronto papers, about ridiculously rising rents. and shortage of alternatives.
The switching ins and outs remind me of some singles bar where you watch the door to see who is hooking up with whom.
It’s a look at colliding social groups in changing times.
There are some strong performances from the cast: Jackman-Torkoff’s Smash; Adler’s Magaret; and, Robert King’s Phoenix.
There’s also Tracey’s wooden slide for the adults to slide down and climb up and a fascinating rug from the scenery shop.
“Every Little Nookie” is an entertaining look at what may be going on around you without your knowledge, whether the sex of the swingers or the housing shortage for lower income people.

A.W.


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