Twenty years after its first production, Prairie Theatre Exchange’s Bordertown Café holds up well enough as a story of role reversals, but the unceasing conflict between characters quickly becomes exasperatingly frustrating.

The story begins in small-town Canada with 17-year-old Jimmy (Jamie Spilchuk) arguing with his 34-year-old mother, Marlene (Jillian Fargey). Their argumentative relationship appears to be the dominant theme throughout the play, which is set in their family-owned-and-operated café.

Marlene is devastated to learn that Jimmy’s father (and her ex-husband) has remarried and wants his son to move to the U.S. to live with him.

The relationship between mother and son is angst-ridden and rife with miscommunication.

Their situation is perpetuated by Marlene’s mother, the egregious Maxine (Janet-Laine Green). Maxine provides comic relief to the storyline with her free-spirited attitude, but her continuous chatter is childishly over the top.

Although Bordertown Café is supposedly about (what else?) borders, this theme is lost in the busy chaos of the dysfunctional relationships between characters.

The tedious storyline is redeemed, however, by the clever and elaborate design of the set.

The first act shows the back of the café, complete with a full kitchen in which the characters cook food for their customers. In the second act, the audience has the opportunity of seeing the front of the café, getting a sense of the café’s quaint atmosphere.

Although the characters of Marlene and Maxine are not very realistic, Maxine’s husband Jim is both likeable and believable. In a superb performance by Paul Stephen, this character negotiates between the other family members to resolve some of their issues.

All four cast members have outstanding acting skills, but the whiny characters of Marlene and Maxine are tiresome.

Some of the lines are completely lost when the music plays too loud and the characters speak over each other. Playwright Kelly Rebar might have done this intentionally to demonstrate how the characters don’t listen to one another, but unfortunately it doesn’t transfer well from real life to theatre. Rather than instilling empathy, the audience is left with headaches from straining to understand what’s going on.

The story might fall short and the characters might be unrealistic, but the acting is beautifully carried out on an equally lovely set.

The cooking of actual food on set is an admirable risk by director Rosemary Dunsmore, incorporated seamlessly amidst the hustle and bustle of café life in this Bordertown Café.

Published in Volume 64, Number 12 of The Uniter (November 19, 2009)