Two picture-perfect housewives from the 1950s confront the modern world with hilarious results when Leave it to Cleavage takes the Globus Theatre stage for three nights.
Created and performed by award-winning improvisers Diana Frances and Karen Parker, the interactive comedy runs at 8 p.m. from Thursday, July 30 to Saturday, August 1 at Globus Theatre at 2300 Pigeon Lake Road in Bobcaygeon.
The pair previously appeared at Globus earlier this season in the sold-out Girls Nite Out, an all-female show combining stand-up and improvisational comedy.
In Leave it to Cleavage, Frances and Parker play martini-sipping housewives who invite the audience to a retro cocktail party and, at first, enthusiastically argue for the “good old days.”
However, as they meet women with careers, families, and modern lifestyles, the housewives begin to question the assumptions that have shaped their understanding of the world.
The production combines a scripted narrative with structured improvisation, with audience conversations, experiences, and suggestions influencing what happens during each performance.
VIDEO: “Leave it to Cleavage” at the Bruce County Playhouse
“We have a foundation to build on,” Frances says in a media release. “The audience’s suggestions, stories, and interactions become the wallpaper, curtains, and throw cushions of the house we’re building together.”
One of those opportunities comes during the show’s “Welcome Wagon” segment, when Frances and Parker venture into the audience with cookies and microphones.
“What the audience doesn’t know is that those conversations become the inspiration for improv scenes later in the show,” Frances explains. “It’s always a surprise — for them and for us.”
While audience participation is central to the show, Frances says nobody will be pressured to take part.
“We’re really good at reading the room,” she says. “Some people want to jump right in, while others are happy to watch. Everyone gets to enjoy the experience in whatever way they’re comfortable.”
The show was inspired in part by “The Good Wife’s Guide,” a widely circulated list of instructions for housewives purportedly published in a 1955 magazine called Housekeeping Monthly. Its advice includes having dinner ready for a husband, refreshing one’s makeup before he arrives home, keeping the children quiet, and avoiding questions about his behaviour.
While there is debate about its authenticity, the apocryphal guide reflects a caricature of traditional gender roles that Frances and Parker considered as an excellent source for comedy.
“When I stumbled across The Good Wife’s Guide, I instantly knew it was ripe for satire,” Frances says. “These ‘helpful housewife tips’ needed a good roasting — preferably at 350 degrees for 90 minutes.”
Regardless of the provenance of this so-called advice to women, the idea of the “good old days” of traditional gender roles in the 1950s still resonates 70 years later, as shown by the rise of the “tradwife” (traditional wife) movement, where some women advocate for a lifestyle centred on homemaking and submission to their husbands.
“The satire of 1950s housewives who just don’t understand these modern times feels even more relevant today,” Frances points out. “It felt like the perfect time to hold up a mirror and invite audiences to laugh at just how absurd these expectations can be.”
Beyond its social commentary, Frances says Leave it to Cleavage is personally important to the two longtime friends because it allows them to create and tour their own work.
“We’re holding a mirror up to the ridiculousness of female expectation while making audiences laugh, but we’re also two dear friends who get to travel together and create our own work,” she says. “At a time when people are rediscovering the joy of experiencing live performance together, there’s something incredibly meaningful about sharing laughter in the same room.”
“I truly believe we’re in the last-gasp era of the patriarchy. Being two strong female improvisers working seamlessly together is our way of throwing a couple of punches back at those old power structures.”
Frances is a Canadian Screen Award-winning television and film writer as well as a veteran improviser. She won the award for her work on Corner Gas Animated and has written for productions including The Beaverton, Still Standing, Aunty B’s House, and the Just for Laughs galas.
She has also received eight Canadian Comedy Award nominations for best female improviser and writes for CBC Radio’s The Debaters. The Burning Season, the feature film she co-wrote with actor Jonas Chernick, earned Frances the Writers Guild of Canada award for best screenplay after winning screenplay prizes at the Whistler Film Festival and Canadian Film Festival.
As for Parker, she is a Canadian Comedy Award-winning and Dora-nominated actor who performed on The Second City Toronto’s mainstage before directing and assistant-directing several of the comedy company’s ensembles.
She has performed with theatre companies across Canada, including in Mirvish Productions’ She the People, and tours with the comedy troupes The Lusty Mannequins and Girls Nite Out. Her television credits include What We Do in the Shadows, TallBoyz, Mrs. America, Murdoch Mysteries, and Baroness Von Sketch Show.
Leave it to Cleavage runs for three performances at 8 p.m. from Thursday, July 30 to Saturday, August 1 with an optional dinner before each performance. Tickets are $50 for the show only, or $100 for dinner and the show, available at www.globustheatre.com/shows-all/leave-it-to-cleavage. Note: All dinners are sold out; call Globus at 705-738-2037 to be placed on the dinner waitlist.
