Review: GRINDR MOM at Waterloo East Theatre

First off, let's speculate on what writer Ronnie Larsen was trying to achieve in creating the piece and more particularly the audience he was trying to engage. His set-up is relatively straightforward — a woman sits in her favourite armchair and delivers a reflection on her life and beliefs as a member of the Mormon Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. She has lost two children in childbirth and she has understandable difficulty in deciphering God's master plan in making her living son not only gay, but (take a deep breath) an atheist and a Democrat. Directed by Gerald Armin, (although I struggled to discern where the credit was earned), Ms Martin delivers these bombshells with a mix of fatalistic disconnection and jaded disappointment. Unfortunately the material gives the actor little to play with and the first 30 minutes of a 70+ minute show, crawled along at an interminable velocity, meandering through repetitive background set-up and detail which rarely tickled the chuckle-o-meter and frankly became tedious. There was a palpable disturbance in the gay Force as patrons began wondering if they had been sold an entirely spurious expectation of an hilarious comedy. And they were entirely right to fidget.

The gays love a renowned song and dance gal and occasionally Ms Martin broke into a bar or two from an evangelical hymn or Fiddler on the Roof as she likened her predicament of having a wayward child, to that of Tevye the Milkman. It was a tentative observation at best. Eventually, almost confessionally, she gets to the moment where in wishing to understand how her gay son has acquired a new boyfriend from the dating app, she takes a pic of her lampshade (the only smart visual gag of the evening) and uses it to set up her profile as PepsiGuzzzler. She mentions the lack of headshots, torsos and the shock of realising 4 to 8 nearby users of the site depending on whether she is in her Utah Church, at the grocery store or indeed at home on her own acre of land.

Rather than the hilarious romp through the comedic discoveries of a meddling and well-meaning Mormon mom that we were promised, the piece resorts to highlighting behaviours — lying and deceit — which reflect poorly on everyone involved and ultimately renders the central character wholly bitter and unlikeable. Quite how that offers anyone the remotest snippet of entertainment value, is hard to fathom.

Waterloo East has a history of tackling tricky and often heartwarming material (Afterglow and F**king Men) spring readily to mind, but for me, this was a disappointing miss which fell well short of those efforts. I look forward to their next production and to seeing Ms Martin in something better suited to her undoubted talents.

GRINDR MOM continues until 1st March.