Do You Want What I Have Got? A Craigslist Cantata

At the Arts Club Revue Stage until Feb. 18

Tickets: 604-687-1644, artsclub.com

From freebies to funky stuff, from pets to personals, Craigslist is a one-stop shop for all our desires. Perusing the online classified ads, aliens from outer space would discover, with just a click of the mouse, everything they need to know about humans in all our complexity and perversity.

Bill Richardson, winner of several Stephen Leacock awards for humour, writer of some of the cleverest doggerel you’ll ever read, and host of CBC Radio Two’s Saturday Afternoon at the Opera, teams up with composer Veda Hille to create this enchanting hour-and-a-half “cantata” for two musicians and four singers.

Richardson’s flirtation with classified ads goes back to his boyhood, but all-grown-up Richardson sees much more in those listings than he did as a child. He compares the ads to Noah releasing, each day, a dove to see what was out there. Anybody? Not only are advertisers looking for buyers for their what-have-yous but many are looking for human connection: do you want what I have got?

You have to listen carefully to get it all, but Bree Greig, J. Cameron Barnett, Dmitry Chepovetsky and Selina Martin make that task pure pleasure. In the piece, Greig is a super-perky 23-year-old; Barnett, a dude with great moves and a big smile; Martin, a world-weary gal and frustrated grammarian; and Chepovetsky, an offhand sort of guy.

With the recurring refrains, “Do You Want What I Have Got?” and the ever hopeful “Did you see me today?” the cantata follows a funny (“Wanted: a guy to sit naked in my bathtub full of noodles”) and melancholy path to the thinly disguised plea: do you want me?

Everybody sings—including Hille and drummer Barry Mirochnick—in this Amiel Gladstone-directed work that only superficially looks superficial. In its mixture of whimsy and quirkiness it frames loneliness and longing in a clever, tender fashion that might see you rushing to place an ad.

joled@telus.net