What do You do When Grandma’s Dead?

Reviewed by Mary Alderson

Liars at a Funeral is a popular new Canadian play making the rounds of summer theatres.  The story about a dysfunctional family seems to strike a chord with artistic directors when they are lining up their summer fare. The team at Entertain This Thought has reviewed it at the Blyth Festival, Port Stanely Festival Theatre, and Huron Country Playhouse in Grand Bend. So, this marks the fourth review of this show on this website.

Liars at a Funeral opened June 13 at Port Hope’s Capitol Theatre. It’s about a dysfunctional family where some members haven’t been speaking to each other for quite awhile. So, Grandma pretends to die and finagles the funeral home assistant to give her a fake funeral.  She plans to jump out of the casket at the mourners to get everyone’s attention, hoping they will patch things up when they come together in the same room. But of course, nothing goes as planned.

This production of the play has a distinct twist, making it a little different than other theatres’ versions.  Director Aaron Jan, himself of Chinese descent, found this play sounded very much like a Chinese family, when he read the script.  “I see our silly fights, our estrangements, our family curses, our unspoken grudges, but also our endless love for each other,” he says.  So, he created a dysfunctional Chinese family.

But the thing is – every family has fights, estrangements, grudges, jealousies, and unsolved anger issues.  I’m quite sure those things do not belong to any particular heritage.

Interestingly, with his East Asian influence, the audience gets to learn a few things along the way. Did you know that Chinese woman dress in white, or at least, light cream colours for a funeral?

It’s a clever comedy script, written by Sophia Fabilli, of Kingston, Ontario. It’s always nice to see Canadian material on stage. But what makes this play stand out is the fact that five actors play nine characters, well, maybe 11 if you count some throwback scenes, or maybe ghost scenes. Or maybe it’s just some drunken mind-wandering hallucinations. Fabrilli has written the script to allow for exits and entrances timed to ensure the actors’ different characters can switch, and the story still makes sense.  

Other than the grandmother who comes up with the funeral scheme,  the actors each have two distinct roles. Carolyn Fe plays Mavis, the grandmother. Jane Luk plays Evelyn, her daughter, and Leorah, the lustful  funeral home owner.  Ericka Leobrera plays both of Evelyn’s twin daughters, Deedee and Mia. Mia is pregnant so we can easily tell them apart. Aiden de Salaiz is Frank, the gay friend pretending to be Evelyn’s new boyfriend, and also Wayne, Evelyn’s ex-husband who was married to her late twin sister, Sheila. Gregory Solomon is Quint, the funeral home assistant, and Cam, Mia’s boyfriend and father of her soon-to-be born twins. Yes, to add to the confusion, there are three or four generations of identical twins in this show. No, identical twins don’t run in families, fraternal twins do. It’s just a happy(?) coincidence that these three women each had twin girls who are identical. Then we learn that Grandma was a twin, too.

With cast members playing two parts, (or occasionally three) it’s interesting to watch them go out one door of the casket-viewing room and come in another door as someone else.

The show has been described as a hilarious farce, but this production is lacking some of the traditional British farce elements. The slamming of doors is reduced to just closing doors, and while there are look-alikes among the characters, there isn’t the usual silly mistaken identities. On opening night, this production lacked the quick pace and hurried and harried running about common to most farces. I didn’t feel that sense of immediacy. Perhaps the timing will move a little faster as they get more practice with the quick costume and hair changes.

Similarly, comedic timing seemed a little off on opening night. While the script offers plenty of witty lines and quick quips, they just weren’t landing in a timely manner. Again, this should improve as they become more comfortable with the material, now that they have the opportunity to coordinate with audience response. Less yelling and more comedic reaction would help the timing.

While the plot is interesting, the characters over-the-top, and the script well written, this production just needs to be tied together a little tighter to land the big laughs that it should generate.

Liars at a Funeral continues at the Capitol Theatre in Port Hope until June 28, 2026. Tickets are available at the box office by calling 905-885-1071 or visiting https://capitoltheatre.com/

Photo: Ericka Leobrera & Carolyn Fe in Liars at a Funeral. Photo by Sam Moffatt.

Liars at a Funeral
By Sophia Fabilli
Directed by Aaron Jan
Performed by Carolyn Fe, Erick Leobrera, Gregory Solomon, Jane Luk, Aidan de Salaiz
The Capitol Theatre, 20 Queen St., Port Hope
June 12 to 28, 2026
Reviewed by Mary Alderson