Quarantine at the Elbow Room Café keeps the iconic Vancouver restaurant's sassy spirit alive
The sequel to Elbow Room Café: The Musical is a digital-specific play running one night only
Joey Lesperance (left) plays Patrice Savoie and David Adams plays Bryan Searle in Quarantine at the Elbow Room Café. Photo by Emily Cooper, courtesy the Cultch.
Quarantine at the Elbow Room Café plays December 12 at 7 pm via Zoom.
MENTION THE ELBOW Room Café, and the first thing to pop to mind might be the sass and crass sarcasm you could expect each time you walked in, knowing if you wanted a second cup of coffee you could get off your ass and get it yourself—or words to that effect. Partners in work and marriage, Patrice (Patrick) Savoie and the late Bryan Searle opened the iconic breakfast and lunch spot in 1983, the two becoming local celebrities as much for their abusive approach to service (and their big-ass pancakes and Tom Selleck burger) as for the role they played in building and supporting Vancouver’s LGBTQAI2S community. Much more than a go-to place to cure a hangover, the Elbow Room (which closed in 2018) was a safe haven.
Dave Deveau and his husband, Cameron Mackenzie—the creative duo behind Vancouver’s Zee Zee Theatre—became fast friends with Savoie and Searle when they met at the café about 12 years ago. The two couples grew so close that Deveau and Mackenzie were with Savoie at Searle’s hospital bedside when he passed away two years ago at age 87. About a month later, Deveau and Mackenize’s son was born. They gave him Searle’s middle name as a tribute.
“It was pretty surreal and special to actually be with him when he died,” Deveau tells Stir. “It was very theatrical in its own way. It felt perfect—it was so Bryan.
“We spent all this time in hospital supporting the end of someone’s life, then, even though it was a different hospital, welcoming a new life into the world,” Deveau says. “It felt important to acknowledge how related it all felt.”
David Adams as Bryan Searle. Photo by Emily Cooper.
Deveau and Mackenzie pay homage to Searle and Savoie through Zee Zee Theatre, where Mackenzie is artistic and executive director and Deveau is playwright and associate artistic director. Elbow Room Café: The Musical by Deveau and Anton Lipovetsky was a workshop production with Studio 58 in 2015. In 2017, the musical had its professional premiere at the York Theatre. Capturing the heart of the Elbow Room, it was a smashing success—leading the Cultch to invite the team to do an annual residency that would introduce a new holiday show about the Elbow Room every season.
Last year, it was Holiday at the Elbow Room Café at the Cultch’s Historic Theatre. Deveau had started writing a script for this year’s iteration, then COVID-19 threw plans to the wind.
Joey Lesperance as Patrice Savoie. Photo by Emily Cooper
Early on in the pandemic, Zee Zee Theatre made the decision to hold off on live events indefinitely; the troupe didn’t want to have to pause a play midway through. Deveau decided to do the COVID-19 pivot, writing a brand new digital-specific show that would share the spirit of the Elbow Room as a Zoom-only experience. Deveau’s new digital play Quarantine at the Elbow Room Café, directed by Mackenzie and presented in association with the Cultch, runs for one night only on December 12. There’s a live talk-back afterward, and viewers “pay what it’s worth after the show”.
David Adams, Joey Lesperance, Emma Slipp, Deborah Williams, and Steven Greenfield perform, with Zoom square-set design by Marina Szijarto. Each cast member will be joining from home, and all rehearsals have taken place online.
“I was sad to lose the [live] show but I would be more sad if we wouldn’t be able to keep the Elbow Room memory alive after more than 32 years of business,” Deveau says. “It was such a big part of our city, and they [Savoie and Searle] are such a big part of our lives.”
Deveau recalls when he and Mackenzie were first toying with ideas for a musical that would celebrate Vancouver—not places that have been glorified in the musical-theatre canon, like New York or Paris. They were sitting at the Elbow Room, brainstorming about Stanley Park and Gastown. But they kept coming back to the iconic café.
“It’s inherently theatrical and loud and colourful; there were all kinds of possibilities,” Deveau says. He remembers how nervous they were to ask Savoie and Searle for their permission and blessing to proceed. “One thing Bryan had said was that, absolutely, we could do it, but ‘I’m an old man, so you better write it soon because I want to see it.’” The original piece opened in the spring of 2017; Searle passed away that December.
“Bryan and Patrick attended the opening, and we got out the red carpet to make them feel like the celebrities they are,” Deveau says. “We did it.”
The Zee Zee team was thrilled when the Cultch approached them to do an annual spinoff show, akin to the model of East Van Panto—the same structure from year to year but with fresh content. Where Panto is great for families, Elbow Room is squarely geared to adults.
Deveau admits that the learning curve for writing and executing a digital production has been mind-bogglingly steep. He’s as excited about December 12 as he is terrified about potential scenarios like a performer’s WiFi dropping out.
“It’s really a theatricalized reading,” he says. “Just like live theatre, there’s always the potential for something to derail the show, but the Elbow Room is the perfect container for any kind of derailment.”
The production takes on deeper resonance for Deveau amid the pandemic. With isolation being acutely felt by so many, the role that the Elbow Room played feels even more significant—as does that of theatre in general. Deveau and Mackenzie see Zee Zee Theatre, which is now in its 13th season, as having a responsibility to offer alternatives to gathering and communing in a room, to shine a light on things that don’t often see any light, and to make people laugh.
“What always brought me back to the Elbow Room was the sense of home,” Deveau says. “It wasn’t just because of Bryan and Patrice or the whole gimmick, but it really did feel like home when you would get up to get your own stuff. The only people you allow to be that rude to you without storming off are your family.
“For me, the pandemic has made me a lot more intentional,” he says. “I’m really taking the time to think about the tone and spirit of producing a show right now. Do I feel compelled to open a heavy-hitting drama right now? No. We’re in the midst of our own heavy-hitting drama. Artists will always find ways to tell compelling stories—maybe not be the way we’re used to for a while. It’s daunting and scary, but artists have never disappeared before.”
As Quarantine at the Elbow Room Café unfolds over Zoom, Deveau and Mackenzie’s three-year-old will be watching and hanging out with his grandparents, who live with them. “He sings songs from the original musical,” Deveau says. You can’t help but think that Searle will be singing along with him.
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