A French Toast, a world premiere by Matthew Ivan Bennett at Meanwhile Park, offers a fresh take on the rom-com genre, focusing on a divorced mother’s crisis of faith intertwined with her romantic journey. The narrative explores complex relationships amidst humor, local Utahn critiques, and sincere character developments, ultimately delivering a poignant portrayal.
Salt Lake City, UT—A French Toast, by local playwright Matthew Ivan Bennett and premiering at Meanwhile Park, has the bones of a tidy destination rom-com: divorced mother, disapproving daughter, brooding French innkeeper, a handful of days, one romance. Lucy arrives at a countryside bed-and-breakfast reeling from her ex-husband’s remarriage abroad, daughter Cassie in tow as chaperone and unwilling audience, and finds the B&B’s proprietor, Gabriel, nursing a fresh betrayal of his own. Their introduction wastes no time cross-wiring these injuries: the pairing of Lucy and Gabriel reads less like a meet-cute and more like two people colliding mid-collapse.
“We don’t say midlife crisis. We say avoir le démon de midi — the midday demon.”…