The List and a Tryst: Little Fish Theatre’s The Love List

By John Farrell

Somebody said that to destroy someone you just have to give them what they wish for.

In Norm Foster’s delightful The Love List, at Little Fish Theatre through April 7, that aphorism is proven true, even if the players don’t actually want to destroy each other.

Take Bill, played with a crew-cut and conservative sweater vest by David Graham. Bill is a government statistician and looks like one, and his apartment is crammed full of his files. He loves statistics, and doesn’t think he can ever find love.

Take Leon, played with considerable charm and a little bit of a leer by Bert Pigg. His love life has ended in a messy divorce after 24 years of marriage (he is a popular novelist and has had “coffee and cake” with a few more admirers than his wife could stand.)

It’s Bill’s 50th birthday and Leon wants to give him a special gift: a “love list” be bought from a local gypsy. Fill out your ten most-wanted traits in a prospective mate, and the gypsy guarantees you’ll find her.

Bill doesn’t want to admit he is lonely, but he grudgingly fills out the list, with more than a little debate. – he puts “oral sex” in fourth place and doesn’t want to include “large breasts” at all. He knows the list will go nowhere, until Justine, (the beautiful and very mysterious Kimberley Patterson) suddenly shows up in his house and his life. Where she came from is anybody’s guess, but Bill is immediately smitten, and isn’t thinking up any questions to spoil this gift.

At least not at first. But when he follows her out his apartment door and can’t find her at all, he begins to wonder. The they rewrite the list, and her personality changes with it. What kind of dating service is this, after all?

The laughs never stop as this talented cast takes you to the limits of love, and a little beyond. This the third play ion three years Little Fish has offered from Foster, one Canada’s top playwrights (last year it was Old Love and the year before the lively The Foursome) and it is another hit, especially if you want a little magic in your love-life.

Tickets are $25, $23 for students and seniors. Performances are Friday, March 9 at 8 p.m. Saturday, March 10 at 8 p.m., Fridays and Saturdays at 8 p.m. through April 7 with additional performances Sunday, March 25 at 2 and 7 p.m. and Thursday, April 5 at 8 p.m.

Details: (310) 512-6030, www.littlefishtheatre.org
Venue: Little Fish Theatre
Location: 777 Centre St., San Pedro