Ding or Bye Bye Dad at Venus Theatre, Mar 6-30

Ding! or Bye Bye Dad
by Jayme Kilburn

Location: Venus Theatre Play Shack.

March 6 to 30, 2014
Thursdays, Fridays and Saturdays at 8:00pm; Saturdays and Sundays at 3:00pm.

Tickets: $20. Buy here.

Parental advisory: Adult themes.

Description: Two sisters, Hamiere and Boomer, creep silently towards their sleeping father, one armed with a bat the other with a frying pan. At the sound of a bell we are swept into a high-pressured speed-dating scenario. Hamiere is a ball of insecurities, a relationship dunce who finds it more convenient to love a dog than a human being. Boomer, her sister, serves as a fire starter and manic cheerleader, constantly pushing her sister to try and form a meaningful human bond all the while choosing only to date gay men because of her new-found distaste for sex. As the bell rings and the daters change seats, we are bystanders to Hamiere’s awkward emotional admissions: her pseudo-lesbian fantasies, her desire to give birth to puppies, and her thoughts on the afterlife. As the play unfolds the audience experiences vignettes of Hamiere and Boomer’s troubled past with men. Ding or Bye Bye Dad centers on the father / daughter relationship and what happens when that relationship is illformed. In the end, Hamiere and Boomer edge silently towards their father’s deathbed, kitchen utensils in hand, ready to kill their monster.