Theatre review: Someone Like You puts a triumphant, wryly honest new spin on Cyrano de Bergerac—and the rom com
Christine Quintana’s new play is by turns painfully funny and casually devastating, with a protagonist who struggles against fat phobia and relegation to the witty friend
Steffanie Davis and Jasmine Chen in Someone Like You. Photo by Moonrider Productions
Someone Like You is at the Newmont Stage at BMO Centre to October 29
THE HEROINE OF the delightful Someone Like You is Isabelle, a fiercely loving but decidedly romance-averse millennial. In the opening scene, Isabelle identifies herself as the character always relegated to the story's sidelines—the witty friend or the fat-girl punchline. Her headstrong stumbles into shedding this narrative and the resulting mix of funny, painful, and sweet moments make Vancouver writer Christine Quintana’s and director Jivesh Parasram’s cynically lovely and wryly relatable play a triumphant venture into the modern rom com.
We find Isabelle (Steffanie Davis) settling into a new apartment, relishing her newfound independence. Her solitude is short-lived when her best friend, Kristin (Jasmine Chen), moves in after breaking up with her "SSB" (super shitty boyfriend, as dubbed by Isabelle). Inseparable friends since university, the pair share heart-to-hearts over meals and beer from Kristin's own small craft brewery, maintaining their seemingly unbreakable bond, even within the tight quarters of their East Van apartment.
With Isabelle's encouragement, the shattered and newly single Kristin ventures into online dating and meets the sensitive and warm Harjit (Praneet Akilla), recently relocated from Alberta. Secretly uncertain about pursuing a new relationship, Kristin seeks Isabelle's help in crafting messages to her potential romantic interest. Isabelle's conversation sparks instant chemistry between the two, blossoming into an unexpected connection for the protagonist and the unsuspecting suitor.
What follows is a hilariously intricate love triangle that tests Isabelle's already fragile personal equilibrium. As her feelings for her new crush intensify, she grapples with guilt over hiding her emotions from him and her best friend. Well-intentioned but misguided attempts to help Kristin move on from a troubled past relationship add to the complexity. Introduce a dose of a 33-year-old’s existential ennui, and you've got a concoction of awkwardly funny and sometimes casually devastating moments as our heroine attempts to guide situations down the path she has convinced herself is right.
First conceived during the pandemic as an episodic audio play adapted from Cyrano de Bergerac, Someone Like You cleverly keeps a fun element from its source material: the main character's direct addresses to the audience. These exuberantly frank asides, sometimes jumping into flashbacks and dance sequences, offer a glimpse into Isabelle's unspoken thoughts, ranging from mild annoyance (“I try to sound neutral when Kristin says something ridiculous”) to deeper-seated pain (“I don’t hate myself, I hate how the world treats me”).
While it may seem that Isabelle's fearlessness in confronting issues like society's discomfort with the word “fat” carries over into her inner world, the reality is that she has meticulously built a barrier around her less-explored emotions, reserving them for the ever-present audience. She’s outspoken on her opinions about almost everything, but guarded at best and deceitful at worst about her true feelings. She possesses a caring nature but has overbearing tendencies (she’s a Virgo!), and is internally idealistic but outwardly cynical. In essence, she’s real. There's an inherent honesty, delivered with a lot of charisma and sheer force from Davis, that makes her hard not to love.
In many rom coms, characters often strike a safe balance—just enough depth to hold the story together but not so much that they become overly complex, but not here. While the play’s humour occasionally relies a bit much on stereotypes about the city or millennials (say, jokes about fish in Tinder profile pics or how unfriendly the city is), Someone Like You’s nuanced storytelling and performances shine in their ability to move beyond clichés.
The design flawlessly complements the script's serpentine turns from uproarious levity to poignant sincerity. Wladimiro Antonio Woyno Rodriguez’s set design provides a straightforward yet effective depiction of East Van. Movable set pieces, deftly manipulated by the actors, reflect the exciting and uncertain nature of early adulthood. Rapid shifts between scenes and storytelling modes maintain a lively flow, complemented by dynamic lighting design. As for the soundtrack, it’s packed with nostalgic hits from the late ’90s onward that will appeal across generations of viewers.
With a lively energy that hardly falters during its full two-hour runtime, Someone Like You is a joyful ride that delves into themes more intricate than anticipated.
The thoughtfully conceived blend of romantic comedy and coming-of-age story ensures that you can easily relate to some part of the story. Resisting its thoroughly entertaining charms becomes nearly impossible.
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