Legoland

Amitai Marmorstein and Celine Stubel in Legoland. Photo by Barbara Pedrick.

Fans of Atomic Vaudeville rejoice! Jacob Richmond and Britt Small are remounting Legoland, the prequel to their hit show Ride The Cyclone this month at Theatre Passe Muraille.

First presented at SummerWorks in 2006, the outrageous two-hander tells the life story of the eccentric Lamb siblings, 16-year-old Penny (Celine Stubel) and 13-year-old Ezra (Amitai Marmorstein), otherwise known as the “Gruesome Twosome,” or “Canada’s youngest drug-dealing cartel.”

The 60-minute performance follows Penny and Ezra’s journey from their home-schooled years living on a hippie commune, where they were very happy until their parents were busted for growing large amounts of pot, to their less-than-pleasant experience at St. Cassian Catholic School in Uranium City, Saskatchewan (the same fictional setting as Ride The Cyclone). Before arriving at their new school, they had only ever seen the outside world on secret trips to the local Walmart (where Ezra faked seizures for attention).

Shunned as social misfits, the oddball brother and sister struggle to find acceptance in their new environment: Penny is labeled a lesbian feminist and Ezra is prescribed copious amounts of drugs. It is in this setting that Penny discovers and falls in love with Johnny Moon, a member of the boy band “Seven Up.” Ultimately, her obsessive devotion to the crooner-turned-badass-rapper inspires an all-American road trip to Orlando Florida (funded, of course, by selling Ezra’s stash of Ritalin etc.), and the rest is arrest-making history.

Legoland (don’t let the title fool you, there is no lego!) begins and ends with Penny and Ezra delivering a presentation for their social worker (and the audience) as part of their community service. Jam-packed with deadpan references to existentialist philosophy, creepy puppets, and ironic multimedia displays, this unapologetically intellectual and darkly funny play is thoroughly enjoyable to watch. Stubel and Marmorstein are simply mesmerizing. Don’t miss it!

Legoland runs until April 13 in the Theatre Passe Muraille Mainspace. Visit passemuraille.on.ca for more information and to buy tickets.