Bordertown Cafe Reviews

/spoilers/ A humourous play about a family living in the borderland between Canada & US, it is essentially a coming-of-age story about a 17-year-old teenager who is caught between his divorced Canadian mother and the American father and both of his Canadian and American heritage. There are many jokes about Canadian and American stereotypes in the play, and yet the characters seem to be the caricatures of those stereotypes themselves - the taciturn and resilient Canadian grandfather Jim, the loud-mouthed and exaggerated American grandmother Maxine and their daughter Marlene who married and then divorced the deadbeat American who is also this mythical figure of a cowboy trucker. Jimmy, the main character who is caught between them all is the person who is purposely undefined, who represents the mixed, the in-between space between the two sides. His struggle to find his own voice and identity amidst the confusion and uncertainty of his age and situation reflects the macrocosm of Canada as a nation who also struggles to find its own place and identity, especially in the shadow of the powerful US. Although the play tries to convey the message that one doesn't have to choose one or the other, and that the 'in-between' is a good place for growth and alternatives, it is still pretty much about Canada (there is a reason why the café is located on the Canadian side of the border) and Canadian pride. It is no surprised that Jimmy, in the end, chooses to stay in Canada instead of moving to the states to live with his Dad. In a way, he is the symbol of Canada as a nation coming of age, becoming and coming to its own, not necessarily by means of rejecting American values but embracing Canadian ones and at the same time negotiating a space between the two.