REVIEW: The Time Capsule is comedy with a beating heart

Theatre Aquarius’s opening show of its 52nd season brings together a talented cast and a funny script that celebrates Hamilton.

It’s hilarious, it’s heartfelt, and it’s Hamilton.

The Time Capsule at Theatre Aquarius brings together great performances, a sparkling script and deft directing to produce a night of truly fun theatre.

It’s set in an unnamed church basement somewhere in the city where five people — four of them strangers —  have gathered to talk about a project to bury a time capsule that will be unearthed in 100 years.

Erin (Deborah Drakeford), a tightly wound high school history teacher, is leading the charge on this initiative and has enthusiastically convened a meeting to get input (or at least pretend to get input) about what the capsule should contain. Trouble is, she’s chosen a March evening when a historic snow storm has hit.

So just two people show up to join Erin and her husband Rick (Richard Alan Campbell), who would much rather be watching his beloved Vancouver Canucks take on his hated Maple Leafs.

Marcus (Richard Young) is a sharply dressed, friendly gay guy who works retail and is eager to be of help. Jess (Stephanie Sy) is a wise-cracking bartender with a chip on her shoulder who is only at the meeting at the behest of her probation officer.

Rounding out the cast is Louise (Mary Long), a wise and straight-talking caretaker who is almost immediately on the wrong side of Erin.

This is a strong, talented ensemble with a palpable chemistry that deftly handles both the comedy and the tricky human relationships that underpin this play. It was clearly appreciated by a sold-out crowd on opening night who laughed riotously and leaped to its feet to deliver a standing ovation.

The Time Capsule, written by playwright Matt Murray (Maggie, Grow, Myth of the Ostrich),  and opening the 52^nd season at Theatre Aquarius, is directed by artistic director Mary Francis Moore.

READ: THE TIME CAPSULE PUTS HAMILTON AT CENTRE STAGE

The two spent months thinking about and exploring Hamilton to bring local and current authenticity to the play. The references land just right — Denninger’s, Milli clothing store, Martin Short, Eugene Levy, NBA superstar Shai Gilgeous Alexander, Grandads Donuts, Roma Pizza. Too much of that and it’s cheesy and overworked. Too little and it doesn’t feel like the story is rooted in the history and identity of a place.

Murray wrote the play as a love letter to his hometown of Sarnia. It debuted as The Chronicles of Sarnia at the Blyth Festival in 2023. Moore immediately knew she wanted to bring it to Hamilton.

In her director’s notes, Moore writes: “This play is about belonging. It’s about the ties that hold us together, even when life is pulling us in different directions. How fitting that it takes place here in Hamilton — a city stitched together by resilience, humour, and grit. A city where connection isn’t just an idea, but a way of life.”  

Murray’s script provides plenty of room for the cast to show its comedic chops.

Drakeford’s use of facial expressions, gestures, and body language to convey her character’s bottled-up emotions, pent-up anger and humourless demeanour is masterful. She is captivating from the moment she comes on stage. Her anxiety, awkward attempts at banter, and struggles to connect with others are almost uncomfortable to watch. Drakeford embodies Erin’s passive-aggressive hostility and her barely contained rage. Her emotional meltdown in Act 2 that is accompanied — or driven? — by a menopausal hot flash got a lot of knowing laughs, especially from the over-50 women in the crowd.

Sy is graced with impeccable comedic timing and movement that is a gift to this script. She’s behind some of the show’s biggest laughs and she never falls short. Her antagonistic relationship with Erin is multi-layered and complex. At times Jess feels like the victim and at other times the aggressor. Sy expertly handles both.

Long, a veteran Hamilton-based theatre and film actor, deserves special mention here. She joined the cast only about a week before previews began when the originally cast Lorna Wilson fell ill. One would never guess those circumstances and that’s a sign of a true pro. Her lines are delivered flawlessly and even when she’s not speaking, Long draws laughter.

Campbell plays the worn down, checked out and embattled Rick admirably, making it hard not to root for him, and Young is wholly likable as the newly single and heartbroken Marcus and in the second act, brings forth the deep heart of the story.

The first act is centred around the time capsule and characters who are figuring each other out on a funny, but somewhat superficial level. The second act, when this meeting has really and truly gone off the rails and this group is now stranded in the basement, is when the real heavy lifting happens.

The characters’ humanity, shortcomings, and connections to each other are revealed, but we aren’t going to spoil anything by disclosing any of that here. Suffice it to say that each of these characters emerge from that church basement changed by their time together.

And isn’t that what life is really about: Opening ourselves to the possibility of human connections that transform us?

At its heart, The Time Capsule is a female-centred tale, exploring betrayal, disappointment, apathy, and the growing invisibility of women as they age.

The quintet delivering this show work their magic on a set designed by Hamiltonian Robin Fisher that is admirable for its detailed simplicity. Like every church basement everywhere, there is a stage that doubles as a storage room, a bulletin board crammed with flyers, and two window wells that are rapidly accumulating snow.

The radiator looks so real that you could put wet mittens on it. It’s not real — it’s theatre magic with tape and Styrofoam. There is a sight gag around the time capsule — again, our lips are sealed — that the audience loved, too.

As we filed out of the theatre, we heard plenty of people saying they were going to tell friends and family to get tickets. We fully recommend that, too. This is highly entertaining theatre that also has a beating heart.

The Time Capsule runs until Oct. 18.