Article written by Richard Ouzounian - Toronto Star, 4 out of 4 stars

Friday, July 20, 2007

Forget about a time capsule. If you wanted somebody to know just what it was like to live in Toronto in 2007, then I'd make them a DVD of Facebook of Revelations, which opened last night at Second City.

Not only is it a totally hilarious evening in the theatre, but it's anchored firmly in the sweet and sour reality of our contemporary urban existence.

Unlike the last two excellent Second City revues, this one has virtually no explicitly political content, but that doesn't mean it's free from social satire. Far from it. Whether they're sending up a couple who nearly wreck their marriage for the sake of "living green" or exposing the dark underbelly of corporate hatred, this comedy team scores bull's eye after bull's eye.

Jim Annan is front and centre from the very start, as he slickly leads the company through Safe Bet: the Musical, the kind of hip but empty show you'd very likely see in our larger theatres. He's also delectable as a series of rumpled losers, including one dude who suddenly realizes the girl he thought he had dirty sex with the night before was actually his male roommate.

Said roommate is Scott Montgomery, who excels at motor-mouthed characters, including a father who relates the entire history of our involvement in Afghanistan to his bewildered children, rather then telling them why their mother has abandoned them.

Lauren Ash corners the market with her unique single-malt style as wonderfully mouthy babes who can tell off an uptight wife, an annoying co-worker or a dim-witted husband with equal ease.

Marty Adams has the most amazing sense of how to do large-scale physical comedy, and nowhere does it come to better use than in a hilarious sketch about a Blue Jays game from hell that drags on forever thanks to a rookie pitcher who can't decide what kind of pitch to throw.

Karen Parker is the one who usually gets to play the uptight card and she does it perfectly in a sequence where she appears on a Rogers Cable show as a proper British breeder of female dogs who keeps shocking the kewl black host with her description of "how to treat those bitches." Darryl Hinds is that bewildered host, but he also scores as a consummate geek who thinks he can woo girls by singing them his karaoke renditions of songs from Disney musicals.

And speaking of musicals, the show comes to a triumphant close with a "Jesus Is On Your Facebook," a gospel salute to the popular online social networking site.

Even if you resist the temptation of "Jesus has requested you as a friend," you're bound to give in when Hinds gleefully informs you that "Jesus has changed his status from `Crucified' to `Risen again.'"

Bruce Pirrie has directed with style and the cast has responded with invention. Facebook of Revelations will definitely make you laugh, but – even better – it will make you think.