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Latest items? Unedited? Fringe Report Uncut
Laurence & Gus -
A History of the World in 5.5 Sketches
Verdict: Sharp, funny - and moving
Laurence Howarth and Gus Brown present an hour of five comedy sketches topped and tailed with an enclosing piece (the half).
Science Line starts and finishes the show. Two scientists dressed in grey overcoats debate a development of the Big Bang Theory while answering the unseen public's increasingly inane phone questions about science (including how to work the video).
The Russian Teamaker It's 1724 in Peter The Great's St Petersburg. Gus Brown in white bouffant wig is dominant tea-maker Yevgeny Scheponik. He resents usurpation by tea boy-genius André (Laurence Howarth in net-covered curlers). Dialogue's aggressive ('Just another punk with a battered samovar and a great big mug of hope'), and loyalties are (sorry) strained ('These days I warm another man's milk'). Bested, Yevgeny plots an unusual exit.
Gareth & Drerek. Drerek Somerset (Laurence) recalls his fun-based relationship with comic Gareth (Gus). Drerek designs ironing-board covers and leads a quiet life ('I have syphillis; I was unwise in The Gambia'). Gareth's packed with mirth. They dine at Yarmouth's Grand Hotel. Will it end in tears? And will those tears be comedic?
What message do the statues of Easter Island hold for the office-worker in contempory Holborn? Laurence (raffia skirt, white garland) is Rakahanga, a bored islander, bent on discovering if Tonga's the only other place in the ancient world. Gus (red garland) is the Easter Island Careers Advisory Service Officer limited choice of careers. At least Rakahanga loves his dad ('I worship the guy. I've no other choice in an ancestor-worshipping society.')
Does Peter Jay (Laurence) have a small penis? He likes weeing, and works in a bank, but accusations of penis inadequacy hurt. Gus, as an accusatorial Welsh landlord, Lionel the logging-plant penis advisor, and unconventional government inspector, taunts. Is it a plot by society ('They've been telling hundreds of us we've got small cocks just so they can sell us more BMWs'), or is he really small?
Father & Son. We're in Chorley, witness to a meeting between father (Laurence) and son Clayton (Gus). It's a neat satire on Northern working-class life (at least as we effete Southerners imagine that life to be), where oral sex and emotions are freely discussed, but love of football is a completely taboo subject. Dad and son become estranged, but in a touching finale at the hospital, following Dad's heart attack (during 'an orgy with the girls from the cheese-counter at Morrison's'), the scene could be set for a a moving - and football-based - reconciliation.
Science Line wraps the show with Laurence & Gus's unusual duet of Electric Light Orchestra's Telephone Line.
Laurence & Gus are a highly unusual comedy duo. It's not easy to put in words the unique quality of their act - the strength lies partly in the skill with which they move and position themselves on stage relative to each other (director Joss Bennathan produces masterful staging) in a way that's exactly correct for each sketch fragment, and the precision of their speech. They aren't qualities that are noticeable - the show flows easily - but they're equally essential in a production rooted in such a high-precision script (by Laurence Howarth).
The best comedy acting is never obvious, and these are two masters. There's an elegance to their performance that's poetry to watch, and a fine understanding of emotion. The scripts are clever in words, but better, they work on a deep understanding of human nature. The gifted acting of Gus Brown and Laurence Howarth springs their warmth and subtlety into convincing life. Extremely funny, there's also a level of profound compassion at the root of the sketches. The father and son sketch, an impish parody on the surface, carries an undercurrent that's surprisingly moving.
Cast Credits (alpha order): Performers - Gus Brown, Laurence Howarth. Writer - Laurence Howarth.
Company Credits: Director - Joss Bennathan. Music & Sound Designers - Gus Brown, Joss Bennathan. Production Management - Nic Watson, Jai Lusser. Poster & Flyer Design - James Bachman. Photographs - Paul Welch. Set Signs Designer & Creator - John Finnemore. Press - Charlotte Hamilton for RBM. Management - Richard Bucknall Management (RBM). Thanks to: James Elias, Charlotte Hudson, Paul King, Amanda Robins. All at The Pleasance, Latchmere Theatre, Soho Theatre. Richard & Charlotte at RBM.
END
John Park
reviewed Wednesday 3 December 03 / Soho Theatre
Fringe Report (c) Fringe Report 2002-2012
