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The Game of Bluff
4 out of 5 stars
Stage 4, Walterdale Theatre, 10322 83 Ave.
In this autobiographical one-woman show, Susan Jeremy takes on an array of zany personas while exploring three generations of women with a taste for risk.
One of the only ways to connect with her mother, now pushing 100 and living with dementia, is through poker, her one true love. The catch? Jeremy spent her childhood finding creative ways (like sticking a rock up her nose) to keep Cathy out of the underground gambling rooms where she spent most of her free time.
Jeremy takes us into the basement poker games (or “financial seminars,” as her mother referred to them) and introduces us to the range of characters one might meet there, such as Herschel, who just wants to win his money back from last night.
The undercurrent to the story is the seriousness of gambling addiction, but for the most part, Jeremy keeps things light. She touches on her childhood distress over the issue, but doesn’t leave us there long.
“Some women garden, and I play cards,” Cathy says, during one conversation that Jeremy initiates on the subject.
Jeremy describes her own gamble: moving to New York to try her hand at comedy. She takes us to auditions and describes how she made it work as a young penniless person in the city. Her winning move? Putting a drawing class on her credit card and dropping it for a refund, then walking away with the the only card that mattered: a student ID that would get her into free events and the school pool.
Overall, the show is a fun slice of life, and Jeremy does great work embodying so many personalities.