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drinks Monday 1 September 08 Edinburgh Reunion in London
Topping And Butch Hit Leicester Square 26-27 September 08
Le Best of Priorité à Gauche
Verdict: Ooh La La!
Edinburgh - The Queen's Hall - 22-25 August 2002
London - Canal Café Theatre - 12-15 and 18 August 02
Two French lads sing and drink to the limits of their vocabularies, foster harmony between two great nations divided by a tunnel, and do their best to get a shag (under both kinds) from selected members of the audience.
Didier's English may be appalling, but he's versed (coupling in couplets) in the language of love. Fortunately Jean-François speaks the tongue of Angleterre like a native (and sometimes like a trooper), though Didier suspects he may be batting for the other side.
Learn cocktail-making: Didier's patented aphrodisiac, the Tricolor - equal parts of Guinness, scrumpy and wine. Find what happens when you call a stranger 'poutain'.
Didier and J-F have seen Britain in the round - from Aberdeen to Abercrombie, from Aberystwyth to Leicester, Bristol, Brighton, Oxford, Birmingham, Swindon, Blackpool (the tower reminds them of home) and - disastrously - Ipswich.
Their stadium act may see them lowered on-stage on an inflatable baguette, but they're fast to condemn traditional French stereotypes. Don't wash? - non; eat garlic? - certainment non; boules? - non.
So they're not great lovers either? Didier's keen to tell (and show) a nice girl in the audience exactly how proficient - technically and romantically - a Frenchman can be. His poetry's fast and extremely specific, It's poor embarrassed Jean-François who has to translate.
Which comes back to the problem in Ipswich. Her name's Linda and she's a stranger. One morning after too many Tricolors, Didier wakes up beside her to find they're married. There's no-one to translate, because Jean-François's in jail for mooning and flashing at a ... these boys don't have a simple life. Then there's what happened at Butlins.
Rock with the mechants garçons to 'Priorité à Gauche, dans la maison!'. Cry to 'Je ne regrette rien'. Look away as they sing unplugged ('au naturelle'). Join them on-stage for a rousing wine-drinking song. Marvel at a one-minute summary of French history ('Bonjour'). Learn obsession ('Stalker'). Recoil at how the French teach their children to remember farmyard animals ('J'ai des animals domestiques dans la maison'). Hand-gesture to the French Revolution ('Liberté, Egalité, Fraternité, Priorité à Gauche!)
And try to avoid misunderstandings. Like all groups, Priorité à Gauche have dressing-room requirements. In Didier's case, he gets wet socks and covered in hair. All because he asked for snow and bitches.
Written, directed and produced by Priorité à Gauche.
Jean-François - assisté par Justin McCarron. Didier - assisté par Arnold Widdowson.
END
John Park
reviewed Monday 11 August 02
Fringe Report (c) Fringe Report 2002-2008
