Review: SARDINES (A COMEDY ABOUT DEATH) Serves Up Laughter and Tears

Grief and loss come to us all at some point. How we navigate them, though, depends on both our relationship with the deceased and our connection with our own emotions.

With his deeply moving “Sardines (a comedy about death),” now at the Maso Studio at the Huntington Theatre through November 16, writer and performer Chris Grace – a regular at the Edinburgh Fringe Festival – shares his own numerous experiences with loss in a one-person show that is a perfect blend of pathos and humor.

The story unfolds in one 60-minute act, under the arc of its framing question, “Can we take joy in something if, as with life, we know how it ends?” Given the many deaths in his family, it seems hard to believe Grace can still find any joy, but his candor and sharp observations are effective in keeping the maudlin at bay.

Grace tells us up front how it’s going to end. He has lost a sister, a brother, both of his parents, and his longtime partner, James Policano, who died from a heart attack as Grace valiantly tried to save him, as he describes in some of the play’s most heartbreaking moments. He also tells his side of his not always compassionate mother’s handling of him, and of his intolerant father’s homophobia, which kept them at loggerheads even as Grace was providing companionship and in-home care for his ailing father.

He also details his husband Eric Michaud’s serious health challenges. A cancer survivor, Michaud directs “Sardines,” on a stage devoid of props, thus allowing Grace and his writing to carry the day. And that it does, as when he mimes answering calls from his sister Patty, repeatedly bringing him sad news. Anyone who has received similar calls will understand immediately the ache that lingers from them.

Grace – known to television audiences as Jerry on the now-defunct NBC-TV sitcom “Superstore” – is not only a talented actor and writer, but also a skilled improv performer. At one recent performance, after glancing out at the audience, he launched into a timely riff on the Epstein files that had the full house laughing out loud. The quick-witted 52-year-old is also very funny on material involving everything from his love of “Seinfeld” and Dr. Ruth to the meaning of Donna Summer’s “MacArthur Park.”

He even briefly takes on the role of ad hoc choral director, dividing the audience into three sections to join him in singing the 2007 Rihanna hit “Don’t Stop the Music,” complete with its sampling of the "Mama-say, mama-sa, ma-ma-ko-ssa" chant from Michael Jackson's 1983 song “Wanna Be Startin’ Somethin’.”

 Whether he is making his audience laugh or cry, Grace, dressed entirely – including his wristwatch and ring – in white, the color of Chinese mourning, anchors what is a universal story. And you’ll want to stay to the very, very end for the reveal of something much discussed and central to Grace’s life. All our lives, really.