Rebecca Northan takes dates strangers onstage in Blind Date.

DETAILS

Blind Date with Rebecca Northan presented by Ground Zero
Loose Moose Theatre
Monday, September 27 - Thursday, September 30

More in: Comedy

One thing’s for sure — Rebecca Northan is funny and ambitious. Who else would pitch a show called Kung-Fu Panties and organize it in such a way that it requires a fundraiser to meet her vision?

Taking advantage of the popularity of her improvised show, Blind Date, Northan is returning to Calgary, her hometown, for three nights in order to raise enough funds to put Panties onstage.

“I’m prostituting myself in one way so that I can prostitute myself in a wholly other way,” is the way Northan delicately puts it.

Blind Date, after two years and about 35 performances, is facing the exciting and nerve-wracking possibility of hitting the theatre-drenched city streets of New York. Northan has a signed contract to feature the show off-Broadway.

“At this point I’m in limbo, but it’s a really happy limbo,” she says. “When I created Blind Date, I certainly never thought that a New York producer would even be interested, let alone offer me a contract and an intention to produce.”

The show involves Northan grabbing a random man from the audience and taking him on a date in front of the crowd, seeking, as she puts it, “what it is about this guy that is worth falling in love with.”

But her focus now, at least as it pertains to us Calgarians, is funding an entirely different show featuring three sexy super-heroines in an onstage action flick.

“It’s a huge production. It’s really big. If I get everything I want, as a director, it’s a cast of 10. That’s a big show for Ground Zero (Theatre),” says Northan.

So what, pray tell, is Kung-Fu Panties all about?

“It is my completely outrageous and possibly ridiculous attempt to put an all-girl action movie onstage. Including a car chase,” she says.

A car chase?

“Oh God yeah, you can’t have an action movie without a car chase.”

Good point.

But it’s not just adrenaline-induced crime-fighting in clothing unfit for a Mormon potluck. No, this show has a plot that would make even a Unitarian blush.

“It’s the three of us kicking the shit out of bad guys and, um, having sex with good guys,” says Northan.

The play is geared to the kind of crowd that showed up in droves for Evil Dead: The Musical. In other words, this is a play for those who don’t often, or ever, go to the theatre. Of course, if you do go to the theatre, you’re more than welcome too.

“The same crowd that came out to Evil Dead, those are people that will spend $150 to go see a concert because they know they’re going to have a good time, and they came to Evil Dead because they knew they were going to have a good time. I want them to come to Kung-Fu Panties because you’re going to have a great time,” says Northan, invoking her inner saleswoman.

And if the fundraiser doesn’t work, Northan has other schemes to bring her vision to Calgary audiences.

“If we don’t raise enough funds, I’ll have a bake sale,” she says, adding, “I will start selling my underwear on the Internet.”

But really, why shouldn’t you come out to the show? Sitting through a date in order to see some panties seems like a small price to pay. I’m sure the majority of the men and some of the women reading this already have.

“Anyone that likes girls and panties, and girls kicking ass, is going to want to come see Blind Date to support Kung-Fu Panties,” says Northan.

It’s tough to argue with that.