Platonic harmonic Besties finally get a chance to share stage together By: Ben Waldman Posted: 4:25 PM CST Tuesday, Nov. 7, 2023 Last Modified: 4:49 PM CST Tuesday, Nov. 7, 2023 Updates

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Diane Flacks and Richard Greenblatt can hardly believe it, but they’ve known each other for more than 30 years.

The first time the two Canadian theatre icons met was while working on a production called Theory of Relatives at Tarragon Theatre in Toronto.

“I knew everyone except for Richard,” recalls Flacks, who now considers Greenblatt part of her family. “I was really intimidated to meet him.”

When they started rehearsing, both artists felt like children playing. Their wits matched. Their cadences were complementary. They knew how to make each other giggle to the point that it hurt, and make each other laugh to the point they were sobbing.

They figured out they were both “intellectual idiots,” word nerds who geeked out on Star Trek and improvisation.

“It felt like we were siblings, and I always felt like beating him up,” says Flacks, who was in her late 20s at the time. “I almost felt like his big sister, even though I was younger than him.”

As their careers skyrocketed, the duo kept working together, with Flacks asking Greenblatt to direct several of her scripts, beginning with Gravity Calling in 1995.

Soon, Greenblatt was the toast of Canadian theatre with his multi-award-winning 2 Pianos, 4 Hands, created with Ted Dykstra, while Flacks earned an Emmy nomination for her writing on The Kids in the Hall, among a long list of other honours.

Then the duo started writing shows together. First came the brother-sister comedy Sibs and then Care, in which they played a married couple dealing with a newborn baby and an ailing parent in a nursing home, a “sandwich generation” comedy.

Now, Greenblatt and Flacks are finally playing best friends in Pals, or Scenes from a Friendship, running from Thursday to Nov. 19 at the Winnipeg Jewish Theatre in its world première, directed by Jillian Keiley, a winner of the Siminovitch Prize for directing,

“Apparently, we have a thing for four-letter titles,” says Greenblatt.

Greenblatt says Pals is based heavily on his and Flacks’ real-life friendship, with 75 or 80 per cent of the script inspired by moments in their own lives or in the lives of people in their circle of friends.

In the vein of When Harry Met Sally…, but without the romantic will-they, won’t-they, Pals explores the dynamics of male-female friendships. Flacks says she and Greenblatt have long wanted to understand how and why certain friendships stay strong and vital while others tend to fade away.

“It’s about the intimacy of a real deep, long-term friendship, and about how sometimes that can be threatening to your partners.”– actor Richard Greenblatt

“It’s about the intimacy of a real deep, long-term friendship, and about how sometimes that can be threatening to your partners,” Greenblatt says. “They see you so relaxed and having fun and laughing with each other, and they say, ‘Why can’t you be like that with me?’

‘That was an interesting dynamic we wanted to explore with this show. There’s an aspect of always being there for each other, no matter how much life kicks the shit out of you. And god knows both of us have had huge, traumatic events in our lives, knowing we could count on each other to help or just to listen, be sympathetic, even if we can’t actually do anything to make it better.”

When Greenblatt’s youngest child died, when Flacks’ son was in the NICU for a year, when each of them went through divorce, the other was never far away.

“We describe it as walking through all the complexities of life, knowing that that person is there for you,” says Greenblatt.

Echoing the arc of their relationship, Pals covers about 20 to 25 years of its fictional characters’ friendship.

“We have to get over all sorts of barriers, navigate these choppy waters, and finally, when push comes to shove, they have to decide: can I imagine my life without this other person?” Greenblatt says.

Flacks absolutely can’t picture her life without Greenblatt.

“It just doesn’t make any sense,” says Flacks, who has written recently for the acclaimed Baroness Von Sketch Show and starred in WJT’s 2021 production of 25 Questions for a Jewish Mother.

One thing she could do without is his eating habits, which have grossed her out for the duration of their friendship.

“A lot of fingers in the mouth, a lot of talking while eating,” she says.

“She says she hates it, but I think she actually likes it,” Greenblatt says.

The banter of true best friends.

ben.waldman@winnipegfreepress.com