Debbie Maslowsky is a delight in the one-woman show A Pickle. In character as Doris Rubenstein, she speaks to the audience warmly and intimately. Rubenstein’s true story is explored here, by playwright Deborah Yarchun, with flashbacks to her early life as well as recollections of her lingering fame as The Pickle Lady. Doris is, as she tells us, a woman with chutzpah, which overcomes her reticence as a long-time resident of Minnesota, a state she assures us is full of polite, restrained people. She strives to keep her cool, but when her traditional kosher pickles, cured in salt brine, are rejected in the pickle competition at the State Fair, she knows she is being treated unfairly. Her attempts to challenge the state fair open up, as she tells us, quite a can of…pickles. The initial insult to her competition entry leads to discussions of diversity and inclusion.

Maslowsky is dressed simply in a grey outfit, with bright red glasses that amplify her deliciously funny expressions.She delivers plenty of cute one-liners that keep the audience laughing. Maslowsky plays Rubenstein as a straightforward, confident woman, comfortable in her own skin. Her smile is infectious and while the show stays light in tone, Maslowsky gives us the full range of Rubenstein's emotions. Director Katie German keeps Maslowsky moving around the thrust stage, so everyone feels included in Doris’s storytelling. 

Maslowksy is well-known to Winnipeg audiences and she was greeted by applause as she entered the theatre. The tent, actually – the summer shows at WJT have been held in recent years in a large airy tent. WJT has taken advantage of the outdoor venue to create a state fair atmosphere, with snacks for sale, games to play, and an opportunity to guess the number of pickles in a jar.

Spoiler alert: A real highlight of the show doesn’t involve any words – Maslowsky opens a big jar of kosher dills, dramatically pulls out a huge pickle, and slowly, with great pleasure, eats the whole thing. That show-stopping scene brought down the house.