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Latest items? Unedited? Fringe Report Uncut
Alice Lunt's Picnic
Verdict: Character comedy
Rosie Wilkinson does four comedy characters. It's themed very loosely round a picnic and lasts 30 minutes.
First on (to Arthur Askey's 'The Bee Song') is a tall French Woman with black curly hair. Speaking entirely in French (probably), she coaches the audience in words relating to picnics. These increasingly relate to the French national sport of sexual intercourse, and the relative pleasure it brings to men (more) and women (less). She exits to Henry Hall's The Teddy Bears' Picnic.
Alice Lunt speaks with a West-Country accent, signifying stupidity. She's in a pink woolen cap, has a red bag in front of her, and wears colour-banded woollen gloves. Two people in the audience leave (but come back later). She's a bag of nerves, she says, and has just been speed dating. Now she must leave for a wee. She returns at the end to close the show.
Alice Lunt compares with Chris Tisdall's character Dylan. Both have West-Country accents. Both characters are presented as disturbed.
Alice Lunt has difficulty in what she should say, she's awkward and comes out with surprising and socially wrong remarks. This is presented as something to laugh at. In reality she'd most likely be somewhere on the autistic spectrum (National Autistic Society), or dyspraxic. It's sometimes argued that those who are in one way or another disabled love to be joked about as it makes them feel included. This isn't particularly true with autistic people, as social communication is what they don't readily understand - all they see is people laughing at them.
And they see it a lot. Village idiots have been ridiculed for centuries. In the 18th century, visiting and ridiculing the mad at Bedlam was a weekend sport. Whether it's still funny is a matter of individual taste.
Marlene is from Yorkshire, in rock chick wig and dark glasses with pink frames. Her husband left her for another man, and Marlene's worked out a raft of homespun philosphies with which to face the world. Her son Damian's at Oxford University. She farted in front of his friends. Marlene's me-centred. As she puts it to Damian: 'What about my needs? What about my clitoral needs? Do you ever think about that when you're writing your dissertation?'
Maddy Fitch, Turner Prize nominee, arrives in the dark. She has long hippy braided hair-extensions. 'What is art?' ponders Maddy. 'Art isn't about painting anymore. My Acropolis is me. I am a work of art.' It's a witty send-up of Hoxton pretension.
Credits (alpha order): Written and performed by Rosie Wilkinson. Technical operator - Emma Hawkins. Producer - Tally Parr for Host Universal.
END
John Park
reviewed Tuesday 9 December 03 / Soho Theatre
Fringe Report (c) Fringe Report 2002-2012
www.fringereport.com
