Sandra Fiona Long’s one-woman performance piece is a meditation on loneliness and longing, using cooking (and pancakes) as the lynchpin for all her ideas, which are occasionally disjointed.
The centerpiece that holds it altogether is the kitchen bench in the middle of the room, upon which Long constantly pops kitchenware and ingredients on and off coasters that light up. The clinks, cracks, splashes and sizzles that ensue will trigger back-of-the-neck tingles, and there’s audience participation of the best kind at the end.
Pancake Opus 100 works best as a ‘happening’, its strong point where sight, sound and smell come together (the entire space will get very messy), but over the course of an hour, a couple of the scenes leave your mind wandering and wondering where it’s all going. Conversely, the scenes that do work are a delight; simultaneously funny and sad, exploring the overwhelming loneliness from the perspective of a single parent, delivered with a dry sense of humour. Production-wise, quirky music and video projections on the wall keep the audience’s interest but seem a little out of place at times. It’s certainly a unique performance piece backed by a solid concept; the execution could just be smoother. But then again, its patchwork approach is perhaps apt considering its subject matter.
