The premise is wonderfully simple: When the show begins, Northan, playing a French woman Mimi, saunters in the audience to pick someone from the audience to be her blind date for the night. He isn’t a plant but rather someone who just bought a ticket to see the show…and now he’s the part of the improvisational two-hander.
On the show I saw, Mimi selected a naive young man named Rohan, who moved to Canada from India a year ago. He looked nervous but soon slid into the role of the charmer, repeatedly telling Mimi how beautiful she looked, how lovely she smelled. Mimi told him such pandering was a savvy technique to get the audience on his side…and it worked perfectly.
Blind Date must only succeed when the guy is a willing participant and keen on going with whatever Northan throws at him. Rohan admitted this was his first date in Canada, and it showed, but that was part of the appeal: it was truly a first date for him, which only added to his innocence when he stumbled over asking closed questions as opposed to open-ended questions. To see him mature so quickly within an hour is a remarkable feat to witness.
Thing is, few actors could pull someone out of their shell like Northan. She has this flirty sweet personality that made Rohan feel at ease, but she was also quick to remember her audience and threw some sharp zingers about dating, relationships, Rohan’s slick compliments and much more.
Going into this show I knew comedy would be top of mind for Northan. But what I didn’t expect was how choked up we would get watching this date progress. When Rohan told her their future child would be called the Indian term for “sunset,” a slew of “awwww’s” echoed across the theatre. My friend watching the show with me shed a few tears during those moments, telling me that kind of realness made the show all that much more memorable for her.
There have been few theatre shows that can be so funny and dripping with insight into the human condition than Blind Date. Toronto, stop what you’re doing and see it now. And then again and again. Thanks to Northan’s setup, no two shows will be the same.
Blind Date is running at Tarragon Theatre until October 8. For tickets visit www.tarragontheatre.com
