LEFT: 'The Teacher' (Kedecia Stewart) enjoys the experienced touch of mortician Carol (Paul Skeen). RIGHT: 'Trevor' (Trevor Fearon, left) looks aghast at Carol's hands as he reveals his mortcian profession. - Photos by Winston Sill/Freelance Photographer

Mel Cooke, Freelance Writer

Midway the first scene of Act one of Grooming the Groom, currently playing at the Little Little Theatre, I was flipping my programme to see if I had accidentally wandered into a production of 'bashment' proportions. Not that 'Carol', a 48-year-old man (yes, man) played by Paul Skeen, was on a 'borderline'; he had just confessed out and out gayness to his mother ('Mother', played by Marguerite Newland).

However, by the end of the opening scene, set in 1997, after Mother had moved out of the one-bedroom apartment the two had shared (and the small bed too) since Carol's birth, and he says "finally I have the place to myself. Sorry I had to lie to you Mother," the air was clear.

There were funny moments in Carol's 'confession', Mother looking up gay and being very happy at the results ('homosexual' was another matter, though). And just as writer and producer Ed Wallace balances humour with the very serious situation of a mother abandoning her child on believing he is a homosexual, the laughs in Grooming The Groom are based on serious matters. Of course, 'tek serious ting mek joke' is nothing new; in this case, however, the joke does not overwhelm the 'serious ting', as is too often the case.

Love life

So from the second scene Grooming The Groom follows the love life of a 58-year-old virgin with 'Trevor' (Trevor Fearon/Michael Nicholson, the former on stage when The Gleaner visited) as a world-wise guide. Along the way it addresses the old man/young girl syndrome (Kaneisha Bowes plays the love interest, Anika, and the mix-up between them when Carol says he plays the mouth organ is one of the funnier moments); the motives of a prostitute (Kedecia Stewart plays 'The Teacher'); the fears of an older man (Carol almost cancels the wedding); and the prickly issue of a man being the partner of a woman pregnant by another man.

All this plays out against the simple set of a one-bedroom apartment, unchanging save for a large television that appears with greater independence and a scene where Carol and Anika meet at his workplace and end up having lunch together (nah, not a dead date).

Newland is effective as a querulous, doting, dependent mother who, like all the characters save Carol, does not benefit much by way of development. Fearon's mannerisms are engaging, eyes bulging dramatically as he finds out that Carol is a mortician, and narrowing as he squeezes in a word with Anika whom he had made an attempt at before, hands resting easily in his pockets as he stops short of swaggering while carrying himself with worldly confidence.

Skeen, shoulders slumped and hands carried like awkward appendages save for when he twiddles his fingers as he glories in his profession; the image of domesticity when he straps on his apron; weary and wary as Mother (who eventually moves back i we only hear and not see her) interrupts his attempted sex education class with The Teacher; wrapped up in the music as he plays his mouth organ (the metal one) is a gem.

KFC Big Deal scrounger

Unfortunately Bowes and Stewart, especially the former (maybe because she naturally gets much more screen time), are not as believable in their roles. Bowes, as Anika, switches between anticipation of being played upon to frustration at being played to with the mouth organ with a certain predictability despite the hilarity of the scene. As the KFC Big Deal scrounger and the ardent seductress, Bowes is too abrupt and all eyes. Stewart's transition from down and out first time prostitute (not quite a 'Pretty Woman' moment) to professional seductress is also too abrupt.

The real life differences in age and, presumably, experience, between the more mature men and the young women works against Grooming the Groom.

And in the end, after the wedding and the pregnancy confession Grooming The Groom moves too hurriedly to the end. Within about a minute, as he finally goes to introduce his lady, Carol finds out Mother is dead, declares Anika the woman of his life and reminds her that she owes him $425 for a Big Deal, and Grooming The Groom ends.

It is too many extremes in too little time.

Still, Grooming The Groom is consistently humorous while remaining humane, and is good entertainment value.