Review: (Toronto) Parfumerie

Patricia Fagan and Oliver Dennis (photo by Cylla von Tiedemann)

Christmas Comedy of the Best Kind
by Spencer Malthouse

OK, Cupid, what if you fell in love with someone you’d never met or seen but with whom you corresponded regularly? Now what if it turns out that not only do you know that person but that you actually despise her? A lot of dramatic irony and some great opportunities for slapstick would certainly occur and there would definitely be the potential for a Hollywood spin-off. Soulpepper’s adaptation of Miklos Laszlo’s Parfumerie imbues the situational comedy with quick and adorable theatricality. 

Set in a high-end shop in Budapest in 1937, six store workers and their boss prepare for Christmas. The central romance of the piece is a love story between two of the co-workers who adore one another as anonymous correspondents but loathe each other in person. Meanwhile, there is deceit and concern amongst the staff s as it becomes apparent that one of the employees has been shtooping the boss’s wife. The play flies along with superb pacing although a few pauses in the second act were longer than necessary. The first act contained a little too much exposition and could have been cut slightly. That said, the plot flows simply and is filled with comic moments and the play is a joy to watch. 

Review: (Toronto) Parfumerie

Patricia Fagan and Oliver Dennis (photo: Cylla von Tiedemann)

A Bit O' Christmas Cheese

The return of Parfumerie is a welcome one

by Jessica Wei

You gotta have a bit of cheese during the holiday season. Pretty A-line dresses and fur stoles, brown paper packages, snow softly falling outside a frosted windowpane, attentive shopkeepers offering perfume samples, men in three-piece suits and boys in newsy caps – Christmas conjures up a 1940s dreamworld. Parfumerie, now playing at Soulpepper Theatre, brings that dreamworld to life. Or at least, to stage, where you can forget about real life for a while.