Ottawa’s Rocky Horror Picture Show still going strong — 7,000 pieces of toast later

Chris Jennings has a recurring nightmare that he won’t have enough toast.

Since Thanksgiving, the 30-year-old has spent nearly every waking moment outside of work preparing for this Halloween’s showing of Rocky Horror Picture Show at the Mayfair Theatre.

Initially a box office flop, the 1975 film quickly gained a cult following as audiences began dressing up as the characters, heckling the screen and bringing interactive props.

Toast, for example, is thrown at cast members during their namesake’s callback after the film’s antagonist calls for a “toast for absent friends.” After 14 years, Mayfair staff have cleaned up approximately 7,000 pieces of toast from Halloween show floors.

The tradition is not lost in Ottawa. According to cast director Sam Kellerman, Ottawa is the title holder for the most attended Rocky Horror screenings in all of Canada. Over the past 14 years, The Absent Friends Shadow Cast have been performing a live rendition of the film, while the movie itself is playing in the background.

In addition to a reenactment of each scene, audiences have the unique privilege of yelling during the movie, dancing in aisles and trying to hit a cast member with a prop. The Absent Friends write Ottawa-original callbacks, like when cast members ask the Criminologist on screen if he voted for Mark Sutcliffe.

To ensure full debauchery, Jennings painstakingly organises hundreds of participation bags that include toilet paper; a bell; a glove; newspaper; a glowstick; noise-makers; wedding bubbles; a party hat; playing cards; Halloween candy; and of course, toast.

This week alone, Jennings surpassed toasting 500 slices of bread, and he was at Walmart again Wednesday afternoon to buy more. “Last year I took a vacation to do it,” he said. “If I’m not asleep or at work I’m making participation bags.”

Jennings, who plays the Criminologist, was a regular at Mayfair’s Rocky Horror screenings in 2010. There he met Kellerman, the stage director, who plays the titular role of Frank-n-Furter.

Wanting to push the envelope, they asked Mayfair’s management if they could start using the stage. “Just a few musical numbers,” Kellerman said.

As the shadow cast grew, so did audience engagement. “Participation went from a couple of people getting up and throwing a few things, to the whole audience,” Kellerman said. “It happened organically, we never really tried to do this. We were putting on a show with dollar store props and whatever else we could get our hands on.”

Pretty soon, the Mayfair started to show Rocky Horror outside of Halloween. Each performance this October sold out at the Mayfair, and the success often earns the company an invite back every month (except they take a break in November).

“I don’t know if Rocky Horror is worth showing without a well-trained shadow cast,” said Mayfair co-owner Lee Demarbre. “You could watch it at home but it’s not the same.”

As Kellerman puts it: “At the Picture Show, everyone’s welcome. Our arms are open to the freaks and folks of Ottawa.”