‘Patty and Joanne’: A holiday howl at Lunchbox Theatre

If you have ever hidden from your family at 6:30 p.m. just to breathe for five minutes, How Patty and Joanne Won High Gold at the Grand Christmas Cup Winter Dance Competition will likely speak to you.

The new holiday comedy is a world premiere opening simultaneously in Calgary and Edmonton.

It follows two women whose adult beginner tap class collapses just weeks before a Christmas competition. It was workshopped through Lunchbox’s Stage One Festival of new Canadian works.

What unfolds onstage is part dance show, part confession booth, and part celebration of friendship at its messiest.

For actors Ellen Close and Eleanor Holt, stepping into Patty and Joanne meant discovering pieces of themselves in the writing.

“I clicked into Patty very easily because there are so many qualities that she has that I relate to,” Close says. “I’m also a worrier and an anxious person and I carry a lot of stress.”

She laughs at the irony of dialing those traits up instead of trying to shed them. But it’s the deeper layer that grabbed her.

“Kind of like high functioning depression… being so busy with all the daily stuff of life that it feels impossible to step back and take time for yourself,” Close adds.

Holt found Joanne just as naturally.

“There’s a lot of me in Joanne. There’s a lot of Eleanor in Joanne,” she says. “I think we’re great foils for each other… we just kind of slipped into it quite naturally.” 

She credits playwright Trevor Schmidt, who she says “writes really good women” and has “an amazing female voice.”

It is honesty that makes the show so funny, Holt hears it every night.

“There’s a lot of laughter of recognition in this piece… people are laughing and doing that kind of painful ‘Oh yeah, that’s it,'” she says.

And yes, the tap dancing level is real — neither actor had ever worn tap shoes before rehearsals.

“I had never tapped in my life before… we went from in the workshop having tap shoes on our hands, because neither of us could tap,” Holt admits.

Close jumps in: “I’d never put on tap shoes until the first fitting on the first day of rehearsal.” 

Choreographer Jocelyn Hoover built the final number with the characters’ limitations in mind,  two exhausted moms armed with a handful of basic steps and a lot of heart. The result is a callback-packed showstopper that has audiences howling.

“We don’t even have to do anything,” Holt says. “We just have to do her moves.” 

What surprised both actors was how quickly audiences connected the dots, catching references, reacting early to setups, and following the emotional turns.

“People are really… leaning in and invested in these characters,” Close says. 

So why go? Close calls it “the perfect holiday show… hilarious, uplifting, and it contains a lot of truth about friendship, about loneliness, about some of the things that make the holidays pretty hard.”

Holt adds, “We could all use a really good laugh. And… it’s never too late to take a chance on something new, or on someone new.” 

The characters are so rich, there are already holiday dreams of a sequel. Patty and Joanne on a tropical vacation, or even a companion piece for their husbands, Don and Peter.

“There’s so much to go from,” Close says. 

The show runs until Dec. 21

More information can be found here.