If you like puns, be prepared to hate them by the end of Pun Pals. I have never heard so many puns in my life and though I never shy away from a good pun or two myself, I finally understood the pain that many feel upon being hit by one. The difference is, I got hit by probably over a hundred of them.
Written by Tommy Grimly, Pun Pals was one of the six plays at the 2018 Cascadia Project Festival, created by Bryan Wade of UBC’s creative writing department. The play is about two coffee-shop coworkers, Rosie and Gilda, cursed by their boss to speak only in puns in order to keep the tips flowing in. The two employees are polar opposites of each other: Rosie is happy and smiles a latte, whereas Gilda is generally moody and pretty depresso. Tired of living the (not so) pun life, they decide to start a revolution in hopes of breaking their curse. With dramatic bright red lights, imaginative characters and lots and lots of (somehow funny) murder, the play is filled with action and excitement.
The play’s fast pace kept me on the edge of my seat, but sometimes it felt like things were moving a bit too quickly. At times it was hard to keep up with all the puns; had there been more pauses, the audience might have had more time to process them. There were lots of great jokes that went unnoticed just because there was one after another.
All in all, Pun Pals is great if you like low-stress plays and want a quick, cheap laugh. You might walk out with a newfound appreciation of all things punderful in life, or you might walk out never wanting to hear another pun ever again. Or should I say, ever a-grain. (Get it, coffee grains? Haha? No? Okay, I’ll show myself out.)