FINDERS KEEPERS written, directed and performed by Larry Smith. Presented by Teatro Berdache at the Glen Morris. July 6 at 6 pm, July 7 at 11:30 pm, July 10 at 1 pm, July 12 at 8:30 pm, July 13 at midnight, July 14 at 2 pm, July 15 at 6:30 pm.

Larry Smith lives out his company's name, Teatro Berdache, in performing his play Finders Keepers. Berdache, Smith explains, is a native word for "two-spirited people," a third-gender blend of male and female in a single person.

In Finders Keepers, Smith -- a Calgary performer and director recently settled in Toronto -- plays six characters, among them a native teenage hustler, a world-weary drag performance artist, his well-intentioned female roommate, a passionate but secretive social worker and a born-again Christian with his own demons.

"The show began with the drag figure, whom I created as part of the One Yellow Rabbit intensive course," recalls Smith, who's performed in Calgary for the Rabbits and Sage Theatre. "I decided to add several other monologues based on people I'd met -- a student I taught on North Vancouver Island, a weird pedophile I met in Toronto in the 80s and," he adds with a laugh, "a lot of social workers I've known over the years.

"Then the challenge was how to stage it, how to do it as scenes and not a series of monologues. What I've come up with is a simple physical vocabulary, vocal stylizations and a trio of ladders to delineate each figure. It was difficult at first -- my tendency was to act them all fully. I realized I couldn't do that and still tell the story clearly."

A hit at last year's Calgary Fringe, the show deals with how the characters look for love in different ways, focusing on the growing but unexpected relationship between the hustler and the performance artist. It's both comic and something of a mystery -- the plot doesn't twist the way you expect it will.

"It became a lot easier for me to perform when I made the characters more precise," notes Smith. "At times, I forget I'm up there by myself. I can hear all of them in my head, see where they are and what they look like."JK