RAPPORT FRINGE ... MARGINAAL VERSLAG ... FRINGE BERICHT
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drinks Monday 1 September 08 Edinburgh Reunion in London
Topping And Butch Hit Leicester Square 26-27 September 08
LUNATIC
Verdict: Comedy cut with the feral
London - May/June 02
London - Canal Café Theatre - 26 May and 6,7,8,13,
14,15,20,21,22 June 02
Portsmouth - New Theatre Royal - 11 July 02
Lunatic is a sketch show with four actors playing London
and Portsmouth in Summer 02, and possibly returning.
It has two extremes – at one it’s comedy, at the other
there are fascinating and obsessive characters, who
stray into the dark end of imagination.
The comedy sometimes nods to Monty Python - partly
because actor Ian Wedd looks a bit like John Cleese,
partly due to the nature of the material. ‘Neil, Sue,
Jacqui and Phil’, for example, introduces fellatio
to a bewildered executive housing estate. ‘Punctuation
Warehouse’ rations the sale of semi-colons to prospective
writers. ‘Defence of the Realm’ sees vegetables and
citrus fruits pressed into service as weapons of war.
But it’s a more sinister area of humour: in the
excellent sketch ‘Calming’, a civil servant (Elizabeth
King) advocates ‘shoot to kill’ as a means of slowing
down traffic.
At other times Lunatic cuts a new path. The elegant
‘Poetry in Motion’ pleads for scansion and poetic
excellence in the office suicide note. Dogs feature.
‘One Man and His Dog’ pairs Ben Nathan’s ebullient
Cockney with King’s frail spinster, while their matching
dogs copulate. In ‘A Walk in the Park’, Emma Driscoll’s
dog-walker encounters Nathan’s interest in rectal products.
He’s the first of a number of engaging obsessives
in this finely acted show. They get a lot more sinister
in the hands of King. Her bag-lady-on-her-knees delivering
‘Nana Mouskouri all Covered in Blood’ creates a genre of
its own, but wouldn’t be out of place in Carrie. In her
‘Truly Weird’, a woman gives birth to fire.
Two sketches have Driscoll and Wedd as a married actors
in a theatre dressing room. They’re normal, if jealous,
but wait till you see the help. For ‘On The Fringe’ and
‘A Quick Rehearsal’ have King’s insane nun as stage manager.
The only Holy Orders this sister’s taking are her own.
The call of the flesh is present – and it’s distinctly Sapphic.
There’s lively acting from the whole cast. Emma Driscoll
shows a fine comic range, from the woman of little
vocabulary but plenty of enthusiasm in ‘Neil, Sue, Jaqui
and Phil’, to the boisterous travel guide in ‘Belly Dancing,
Meal Included’.
Elizabeth King gives mesmeric performances as a range of
almost feral characters way beyond psychiatric assistance.
Ben Nathan provides substance to East-Enders, office man,
and many others. Ian Wedd delivers authority to many parts
including a backstage thespian and Defence Minister
bewildered by a bill for fruit and veg.
Writers – Elizabeth King and Ian Wedd. Lights and sound -
Jake Wiltshire. Produced by Jibe Productions.
END
John Park
reviewed - June 02 - Canal Café Theatre
Fringe Report (c) Fringe Report 2002-2008
